▲ Seoul Southern District Court
The arrest warrants for an 80-year-old multi-family housing landlord and another suspect, who are accused of abandoning a body in a residential area in Seoul's Guro District, have been dismissed.
Judge Kim Ji-hyun, the warrant-dedicated senior judge at the Seoul Southern District Court, dismissed the arrest warrants for both a man in his 60s surnamed Kim, charged with abandoning a corpse, and an 80-year-old man also surnamed Kim, charged with instigating the abandonment of a corpse, following their pre-trial suspect interrogations (warrant review hearings) held from 10:30 a.m. today (October 29).
Regarding the man in his 60s who is accused of directly dumping the body at a garbage disposal site in a residential area of Guro-dong, Guro District, Judge Kim explained, "Considering that he has a fixed residence, acknowledges and reflects on his wrongdoing, and has no record of criminal punishment exceeding a fine, it is difficult to see that there is a risk of flight or destruction of evidence."
"At this stage, it is difficult to recognize the grounds, necessity, and appropriateness of detention," the judge added.
The court also concluded that there was no risk of flight or destruction of evidence for the 80-year-old Kim, who is accused of ordering the body abandonment.
Judge Kim stated, "Taking into account his family relationships, advanced age, health condition, lack of any significant criminal record other than a punishment 50 years ago, and his attitude during the interrogation, it is difficult to recognize the grounds, urgency, and appropriateness of detention at this stage."
The 80-year-old Kim is the landlord of the multi-family house in Guro District.
It was found that the man in his 60s had previously lived in the building as a tenant and usually looked up to the 80-year-old Kim like a father.
During police investigations, the suspects admitted to the fact that they abandoned the body.
The 80-year-old landlord told police that he did not know the object he told the other suspect to throw away was a body, claiming he instructed him to discard it because something that looked like a doll was there.
The man in his 60s told police that he did suspect what he was discarding might be a body.
Arriving at the court earlier in the day to attend his warrant hearing, the man in his 60s answered "I thought it was a doll" when asked by reporters whether he dumped the body knowing it was a corpse.
When asked if he admitted to the charges, he replied "Yes," and when asked if he admitted to the charge of abandoning a body, he said, "I am sorry."
The identity of the abandoned body was identified as an illegal resident of Chinese nationality.
No circumstances indicating homicide have been found, and the cause of death could not be determined due to the decomposition and desiccation of the body.
Investigations showed that the deceased had previously lived with his wife in the multi-family housing owned by the 80-year-old Kim.
Police suspect that the wife may have fled out of concern that reporting her husband's death would expose her illegal immigration status.
Earlier, the body, which was wrapped in plastic and newspapers, had been left unattended for five days before a sanitation worker belonging to the Guro District Office discovered it at around 11:00 a.m. on October 27 and reported it to the police.
It was reported that the body was in a "mummified" state due to already progressed decomposition and desiccation at the time.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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