'Paju Murder' Case Shows Signs of Premeditation... "Freezer Used for Confinement"

[Anchor]

As we reported yesterday (the 8th) regarding a frozen body discovered inside the freezer warehouse of a cafe in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, police are expanding their investigation with the possibility of a premeditated crime after uncovering that the victim was accompanied by an acquaintance when she visited Paju.

Reporter Jeong Jiyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

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

Located in the parking lot next to the cafe building is a container-style freezer warehouse where the body of the female victim was found on the 4th.

Residents near the cafe reportedly stated, "We had never seen the freezer warehouse there until last week."

The freezer warehouse is also not visible in video footage of the cafe parking lot uploaded to social media around the middle of last month.

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

Police have reportedly confirmed through CCTV footage that A visited the cafe multiple times even after confining the female victim inside the freezer warehouse.

Police also confirmed that there was an acquaintance who traveled together with the victim when she visited Paju.

This acquaintance reportedly notified the victim's family after being unable to reach her, as she had visited the cafe saying she was going to "trade gift certificates."

Furthermore, police have reportedly secured a statement from A to the effect that "the freezer warehouse was built to confine her if she found out about the forged gift certificates."

Based on this statement, police are expanding their investigation into the possibility that the deceased victim was targeted and premeditately murdered in connection with a tens of billions of won counterfeit gift certificate scam.

Gift certificates with a face value estimated at 50 billion won, suspected of being counterfeit, were discovered inside the freezer warehouse 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 Chul-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.