Cafe Owner Claims Freezer Where Body Was Found Was Installed for Confinement

[Anchor]

As we reported yesterday, on September 7, a frozen body was found inside a freezer at a cafe in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Police are expanding their investigation, weighing the possibility that the crime was premeditated based on the suspect's statement that they installed the freezer for the purpose of confinement.

Reporter Jeong Jiyeon has more.

[Reporter]

A man in his 30s, identified as A, who operated a cafe in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, has been arrested on charges of luring and murdering a woman in her 60s.

Located in the parking lot beside the cafe building is a container-style freezer where the body of the victim was discovered on the 4th.

Nearby residents reportedly stated that they had never seen the freezer there until last week.

The freezer is also not visible in a video of the cafe parking lot posted on social media around mid-August.

Police suspect that cafe owner A installed the freezer recently for the purpose of the crime.

Police have reportedly confirmed through CCTV footage that A traveled back and forth to the cafe multiple times even after locking the victim inside the freezer.

Police also confirmed that an acquaintance accompanied the victim when she visited Paju.

This acquaintance reportedly notified the family after losing contact with the victim, who had visited the cafe saying she was going there to trade gift certificates.

In addition, police reportedly secured a statement from A saying, "I built the freezer to confine her if my forgery of gift certificates was discovered."

Based on this statement, police are expanding their investigation with the possibility that the victim was systematically murdered while entangled in a tens-of-billions-of-won forged gift certificate fraud case.

Gift certificates with a face value of 50 billion won, suspected to be forged, were discovered inside the freezer in question.

Police are questioning the arrested suspect A to verify the authenticity and distribution channels of the gift certificates, while also checking for any additional accomplices.

(Camera input: Kim Nam-sung | Video editing: Chae Cheol-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.