Police send civil servant to prosecutors over wife's killing
Retaliatory murder charge cited after divorce suit angered husband
A civil servant in his 30s who tracked down and brutally killed his wife amid their divorce proceedings has been sent to prosecutors. Their young daughter was present at the scene, and a recording made when the wife called 112 for help captured the child's voice crying, "Mom, mom."
The Gwangju Police Station in Gyeonggi Province referred the man, identified only as A, to prosecutors on Wednesday on charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes over retaliatory murder, along with violations of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Domestic Violence Crimes, the Child Welfare Act over child abuse, and aggravated trespassing into a residence.
A left a holding cell at the Bundang Police Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, around 9 a.m. that morning. His face was covered by a black cap and mask, and his hands and arms were restrained. Reporters asked whether he had gone to see his wife out of anger after receiving her divorce complaint and whether he had intended to kill her from the start. They also asked whether he had anything to say to the bereaved family. He did not respond to any of the questions and boarded a police transport vehicle in silence.
A also did not react when asked whether he felt sorry for the child who witnessed the crime. The circumstances of the killing, carried out in front of the couple's young daughter, were captured in full through his wife's emergency call records before she died.
A is accused of killing his wife, also in her 30s, on the stairwell of a multiunit residential building in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, around 7:17 a.m. on Sept. 1. At the time, the wife used a smartwatch on her wrist to alert police to the emergency. The device's activation also recorded the entire attack.
The police report from that day recorded phrases including "Only crying can be heard," "A man's voice seems audible," "Crying continues," "Mom, mom (appears to be the child crying)" and "Come here, come here, baby (woman's voice)."
A was arrested about four hours after the killing. During the police investigation, he reportedly said he had "exploded in anger" after receiving his wife's divorce complaint, citing it as his motive. Police determined the killing constituted a retaliatory crime and revised the charge from murder to retaliatory murder.
Police also applied charges under the Child Welfare Act, given that the crime was committed in front of the couple's young child, and under the domestic violence law for failing to comply with a temporary protection order.
The wife had endured domestic violence but had been afraid to report it for fear of her husband's retaliation. She had filed five domestic violence reports since March of last year. In April, she visited the Suwon Jangan Police Station in person for counseling. She told officers that her husband had slapped her the previous day. She also said, "During an argument, my husband picked up a knife and threatened me, saying, 'Stab me with this knife, or one of us has to die -- either you or me -- for this to end.'"
According to the counseling record from that visit, police officers explained the process for filing a domestic violence report, along with temporary protective measures and temporary shelter. The wife adamantly refused them out of fear of her husband's retaliation.
20ki@heraldcorp.com
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