A South Korean man has been arrested after confessing to the murder of his girlfriend 16 years ago, during which he entombed her body on his balcony beneath a layer of cement, police reported to AFP on Tuesday.
The man, now in his 50s, was charged with the murder that occurred in October 2008 during an argument. Authorities from the Gyeongnam Provincial Police and Geoje Police Station revealed that he struck the woman fatally with a blunt object and then placed her body in a large travel bag. He subsequently concealed the body on his balcony by stacking bricks and pouring a 10-centimeter (four-inch) layer of cement over it.
The woman was not reported missing until three years later, as she had not been in contact with her family. During a missing person investigation in 2011, the man told police that they had “broken up,” which led to the case remaining unsolved due to a lack of evidence.
A police official explained that the body had not been discovered earlier because it was fitted into the small balcony space, and the room had been “virtually empty since 2016.” That year, the man was arrested for drug use, and the landlord stated that the property was being used for storage.
The body was uncovered last month when a worker searching for water leaks stumbled upon the travel bag. Upon inspection, police found the woman’s body “preserved to some extent.” They noted that “the body hadn’t completely decomposed to bones, allowing us to identify her using fingerprints.”
Following his confession during questioning, the police indicated that the investigation is nearing completion, and the man will soon be sent for prosecution.
