Murderer of Female Collegian Confesses to 6 More Killings

The suspect in the murder of a 21-year-old woman in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, confessed yesterday that he killed and buried six other missing women from Dec. 2006 through last month in the southwestern area of the province.

Gyeonggi police found four of the bodies in Ansan and Hwaseong, where Kang Ho-soon admitted to burying his victims.

"While being questioned over other crimes, Kang confessed early Friday morning that he also killed six other women who went missing in southwestern Gyeonggi Province," police said.

His other victims were identified as karaoke staff "Bae" (then age 45); "Park" (37); "Kim" (37); officer worker "Park" (52); college student "Yeon" (20); and housewife "Kim" (47). They had been on the list of unsolved missing cases between Dec. 13, 2006 and November last year.

Kang is known to have killed five of the women in a 26-day span, including two in two days.

According to police, he went to karaoke bars as a customer and lured the three staff to his car. He killed them in his car after having sex with them. He also raped and murdered the three other victims after offering them a ride at bus stops. He buried their bodies after strangling them with stockings, neckties and hosiery.

Based on Kang`s statement, police recovered four bodies believed to be those of housewife Kim, karaoke staff Bae, college student Yeon and officer worker Park in Sangnok-gu, Ansan, Bibong-myeon, Hwaseong, and Guun-dong, Suwon. All of them were laid face down and naked except for stockings wrapped around their necks.

Police failed to find the corpse of karaoke staff Kim because a driving range has been built at the alleged location of her burial (Mado-myeon, Hwaseong). The body of karaoke staff Park was discovered in 2007.

On Kang`s motive for committing the serial killings, police said, "He said he had the impulse to kill women as he had nothing to lose after his fourth wife died in a fire in Oct. 2005. He also claims he could not resist the urge to kill after his first murder."

Police said they will probe Kang further given that his testimony has little credibility. An additional investigation is also looking into the deaths of his wife and her mother, suspecting he might have committed arson and killed the two to collect insurance money.

Kang received an insurance claim of 480 million won (480,000 U.S. dollars) after their deaths.