"There Originally Was No Freezer"... New Circumstances in 'Paju Murder Case'

[Anchor]

It has newly been revealed that there was an acquaintance who traveled together to Paju with the woman found dead inside a freezer in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Police have secured a statement from the arrested cafe owner indicating that he built the freezer to confine the victim, reinforcing the focus of the investigation on a premeditated crime.

Reporter Jeong Jiyeon.

[Reporter]

A cafe in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, operated by a man in his 30s, identified as A, who was 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 victim's body was discovered on the 4th.

Residents near the cafe reportedly stated, "We had never seen a 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-last month.

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

It is reported that police confirmed through CCTV footage that A visited the cafe multiple times even after confining the victim inside the freezer.

Police also confirmed that there was an acquaintance who traveled alongside 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 to trade gift certificates.

Police also reportedly secured a statement from A to the effect that "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 in mind that the deceased victim was caught up in a tens of billions of won counterfeit gift certificate scam and was premeditately murdered.

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

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

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