Seogwipo Police Station. [Yonhap]
Seogwipo Police Station. [Yonhap]

A former police officer who killed his estranged wife during divorce proceedings had been under a restraining order barring him from approaching her at the time of the attack, authorities confirmed.

Police said Seogwipo Police Station arrested a man in his 50s, identified only as A, in Guri, Gyeonggi Province, at around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday on suspicion of murdering his wife.

A is suspected of traveling to the home of his wife, identified as B, in Namwon-eup, Seogwipo, Jeju, in the early hours of Sunday and killing her with a bladed weapon. B was found dead at her home, bleeding, at around 7 p.m. the same day.

Investigators said A had worked as a police officer on Jeju for about a year before retiring and relocating to Seoul, where he had been living apart from his wife while divorce proceedings were underway.

A had also been under a restraining order prohibiting him from approaching B's Seogwipo residence, in effect from March this year through August next year.

A missing-persons report had been filed by A's family on Sunday — the same day as the killing — and while a violent crime could have been anticipated at the time, more than a day passed before B's body was discovered and A was apprehended.

A's family filed a missing-persons report with Seoul's Jungnang Police Station at around 2 p.m. Sunday, saying A had disappeared after leaving a note hinting at suicide, Yonhap reported.

Jungnang Police Station, while tracing A's movements, learned he had frequently visited a billiard hall in Guri, Gyeonggi Province, and transferred the case to Guri Police Station at around 6:45 p.m. the same day.

Guri Police Station subsequently confirmed through internal checks that A had been issued a restraining order in connection with domestic violence. On Monday morning, it asked Seogwipo Police Station — which covers the area where A's wife lived — to conduct a welfare check.

Officers from a substation under Seogwipo Police Station visited B's home at around 8:22 a.m. Monday. They rang the doorbell and sounded a police siren, but when there was no response, they left the scene.

When officers returned that afternoon and noticed a broken window, they searched the house and found B dead inside — more than 30 hours after A had been reported missing.

Based on CCTV footage and other evidence, police believe A left a note in Seoul on Saturday, traveled to Jeju, and committed the crime at around 3 a.m. Sunday. The killing had already taken place before the missing-persons report was filed.

For that reason, it is possible that even if police had checked on B's safety immediately after the missing-persons report was filed, the attack itself could not have been prevented. However, given that roughly 40 hours elapsed between the crime and A's arrest, questions over the initial police response to the disappearance of a man under a restraining order are unlikely to go away.

Jungnang Police Station, which handled the initial missing-persons investigation, said the report had come in as a suspected suicide, not as a domestic violence case, making it difficult to recognize any criminal connection at the outset. The station added that it focused on quickly transferring the case to Guri Police Station once A was spotted in that jurisdiction.

Critics have also noted that missing-persons cases are handled by the criminal investigations unit while restraining orders are managed by the women and youth division — a structural divide that may explain why the restraining order was not flagged early in the response.

Meanwhile, police plan to transfer A to Jeju to investigate the precise motive for the killing. A has not denied the charges.

If you're thinking about self-harm or suicide, contact the Ministry of Health and Welfare's helpline 1393, available 24/7. Please request a translator for English-language services.


betterj@heraldcorp.com