Geoje Carrier Murder Case Uncovered After 16 Years Buried Under Cement
In October 2008, a man in his 40s, identified as Mr. A, murdered a woman he was living with in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, hid her body in a carrier, and covered it with cement. Sixteen years later, he was arrested by police and brought to justice. Mr. A and the victim first met in 1998 at a nightclub in Busan. Mr. A, who worked as a DJ, began a relationship with the victim when she visited as a customer, and the two had lived together in Geoje since 2004. On the day of the incident, the two had an argument, and Mr. A beat the victim's head and face with a blunt weapon, killing her. He placed the body in a carrier, moved it to an outdoor veranda next to the rooftop room, built a structure out of bricks, and poured a 10-centimeter-thick layer of cement over it to conceal it.
Because the victim had little contact with her family, she was only reported missing in August 2011, three years after the incident. Police questioned Mr. A as a person of interest, but with no significant evidence emerging, the disappearance remained an unsolved case. Mr. A lived in the rooftop room alongside the body until 2016, then served a year in prison for drug use before moving to Yangsan.
It was a torrential downpour that unearthed the 16-year-old secret. In August 2024, heavy late-summer rain fell on Geoje, causing a leak in the villa, and workers who came to make repairs discovered the travel carrier while breaking apart the cement structure. Inside was the body of a woman, so little decomposed that her fingerprints could be identified.
Police investigation revealed the body was the victim reported missing in 2011, and an autopsy confirmed she died of head injuries from a blunt weapon. Police identified Mr. A as a suspect and arrested him at his home in Yangsan. Mr. A vividly remembered the exact date and time of the crime 16 years earlier, the detailed circumstances, and even the location where he discarded the weapon. The investigation also revealed that he had purchased and used methamphetamine.
Mr. A was indicted in detention on charges of murder and violation of the Narcotics Control Act (psychotropic substances), and admitted to all charges at trial. The first-instance court sentenced him to 16 years and 6 months in prison. The court stated, "The victim appears to have ended her life amid extreme physical and mental suffering and fear, and the victim's family is petitioning for severe punishment of Mr. A," sentencing him to 14 years for murder and 2 years and 6 months for the drug violation. Mr. A and the prosecution each appealed the sentence, but the appellate court upheld the original ruling, and the Supreme Court also found no error in the judgment, finalizing the original verdict.
The body, preserved intact under cement for 16 years, allowed fingerprint identification and an autopsy, which became decisive evidence in proving the murder charge. The case, which had remained unsolved since the missing person report in 2011, came to a close with the finalization of the verdict.
