![Court ruling [Herald DB]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/10/news-p.v1.20260607.433962a4cfd74cef8ba405a5419fde66_P1.jpg)
A man who killed an elderly neighbor, then mutilated and abandoned her body had his 30-year prison sentence upheld on appeal — a term the court acknowledged amounts to life imprisonment in effect.
Judge Lee Eun-hye of the Seoul High Court's Chuncheon Division Criminal Panel 1 on Wednesday upheld the original sentence against the defendant, identified only as A, 78, on charges of murder, desecration and abandonment of a corpse, and violation of the Stalking Punishment Act. The court dismissed appeals by both sides.
"The defendant killed the victim — with whom he had been in a de facto in-law relationship — under the mistaken belief that she was seeing another man, then brutally mutilated and abandoned her body," the court said. "This gravely undermines the fundamental values of our society: respect for life and respect for the dead."
The court added that A appeared considerably frail and infirm given his advanced age, and that the original sentence was in effect no different from a life term.
A is accused of killing B, a woman in her 80s, on Oct. 3 last year in Sangyang-ri, Sangseo-myeon, Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon Province, then mutilating her body and dumping it by a riverside. B's family reported her missing when they visited during the Chuseok holiday, prompting a search. Police found her body in a nearby stream on Oct. 8 with the help of a search dog named Bolt. A was arrested the following day.
As investigators closed in, A took medication and was hospitalized before being taken into custody. He received a 30-year sentence at trial in January, which the appeals court has now upheld.
Throughout the proceedings, A deflected blame onto the victim. He told the court he killed her because she had been in a common-law marriage with his older brother and was seeing another man while his brother was hospitalized.
When the presiding judge asked whether A had harbored such resentment toward the victim given that his brother had died 15 years earlier, A said only that he felt sorry. He did not submit a single letter of remorse throughout the entire appeals process.
Prosecutors had sought a life sentence at the final hearing, arguing that A showed no genuine remorse despite committing a "bizarre, brutal and unconscionable crime" and that permanent removal from society was necessary to prevent further victims.
The court found no change in circumstances that would warrant a different sentence and upheld the original ruling.
dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com
