The police agency on Wednesday said that Park Chun-bong, the suspect in a gruesome killing and mutilation in Suwon, may have killed his victim intentionally, contrary to his earlier confession.
Before the Nov. 26 death of Park’s ex-girlfriend, whose severed torso was later found in pieces, he rented a room at an inn in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, where he planned to stay for a long while, investigators said.
Park, 56, was found to have stayed at the inn after killing the woman, who was 48 years old, instead of his one-room apartment.
“After committing the crime, the suspect only used his residence for dismembering her dead body,” said a police officer.
Investigators are widening the scope of their probe, as it was found that Park had rented the room before the crime.
Further, he reportedly submitted a request to his employer to take Nov. 26 off work.
Police alleged that Park visited the woman, who was working at a large discount chain, and forcibly took her to his apartment.
Park has admitted to killing the woman unintentionally, but autopsy results conflict with his story.
Park claimed that he had pushed her during an argument, causing her to hit a wall and fall to her death. However, police said the autopsy results suggested that the victim was likely killed by choking.
On Wednesday, the Suwon District Police Agency conducted an on-the-spot inspection of the scene of the murder. The suspect reenacted his crime in a calm manner, drawing jeers from spectators.
Earlier this month, the upper body of the woman was found without its head, arms and internal organs ― except for both kidneys ― in a black plastic bag on a walking trail in Suwon.
The police have since found most of the victim’s body in Suwon and nearby Hwaseong.
Following Park’s confession, police released his photo to the media based on a law permitting this when there is sufficient evidence that the suspect of a brutal and grave crime has committed it.
The case is similar in its brutality to a murder committed by Oh Won-chun, who killed a woman in her 20s after kidnapping her while she was on her way home in Suwon in April 2012.
Oh cut the body into 280 pieces and disposed of them in 14 plastic bags. An appellate court and the Supreme Court commuted a district court’s death sentence to life imprisonment in January 2013.
