Woman left elderly father to starve to death while living off his pension

A woman was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for abandoning her ailing father, who died of malnutrition, the Incheon District Court said Tuesday.

The court found the 39-year-old guilty of abandonment resulting in the death of a lineal ascendant. Her father was 76.

From June until his death on July 22, 2025, she failed to provide him with food or medical care, despite his physical weakness and need for treatment. He weighed just 34 kilograms and was 170 centimeters tall when he died.

The woman did not give him food that a neighbor had left for him. She also turned away officials from a local welfare center who came to provide food, refusing them entry four days before her father died and again on the day he died.

She applied for a government relief payment on the day her father died. She had been living on rental income and her father’s old-age pension.

“The defendant had a duty to care for her father, who needed treatment and could not live independently. But she abandoned him for an extended period, leading to his death,” the court said.

The court said the woman knew her father’s condition had worsened and that he needed treatment. Despite receiving some support from welfare officials, she failed to provide even minimal care.

It added that her father appeared to have suffered considerably before his death.