Body Hidden in Freezer, Notice Posted: 'Tens of Billions of Won in Gift Certificates' Found at Cafe

It has been revealed that the owner of a cafe in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, where the body of a woman in her 60s was discovered, posted a notice of temporary closure on the day of the crime and instructed normal business operations starting the next day.

The 30s cafe owner, identified as A, who is accused of murdering the woman in her 60s, told employees not to come to work on September 3, the day of the crime, and closed the cafe.

At the time, a notice was posted on the cafe stating that operations would be suspended on September 3 due to internal store circumstances, and normal operations would resume from the 4th.

However, operations were halted when police, who launched an investigation after receiving a missing person report from the victim's family around midnight on September 4, discovered the frozen body of the woman inside a refrigerated container at the cafe on the afternoon of the same day.

This circumstantial evidence suggests that had the police not discovered the body, A intended to continue operating the cafe as if nothing had happened.

A was emergency arrested in the Yeongdeungpo area of Seoul on September 4 and was formally arrested the day before yesterday.

A had been involved in cash-converting gift certificates, a practice commonly known as "gift certificate discounting," and it was found that the victim met A for the first time on the day of the incident to discuss matters related to gift certificates.

Police believe that A lured the victim into the walk-in freezer by saying that the gift certificates were in the storage room, and committed the crime when the victim noticed that the gift certificates she was trying to sell were counterfeit.

In fact, tens of billions of won worth of counterfeit gift certificates were found at the scene.

Police have requested an autopsy from the National Forensic Service to investigate the exact cause of death and the specific details of the crime, including whether the victim was murdered and then left or trapped in the freezer and died.

(Produced by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video Editing by Lee Eui-seon | Design by Lee Su-min | Production: Digital News Department)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.