'Freezer Murder' Targeted Penalties... "Everything Was Premeditated"

[Anchor]

A man in his 30s has been indicted in custody for trapping and killing a woman in her 50s inside a café freezer in Paju. Prosecutors concluded that the suspect committed the crime with premeditation and the intent to kill from the beginning to pay off massive debts at once, and that there were no accomplices.

Reporting by Yoo Soo-Hwan.

[Reporter]

"I had no intention to kill, and Broker A, who mediated the department store gift certificate transaction, also knew about the forgery."

This was the claim made by the 39-year-old suspect, surnamed Shin, in the Paju freezer murder case during police investigations.

However, the prosecution, which took over the case in mid-September, secured a recorded phone call file through smartphone forensics in which Shin mentioned plans for the crime to a third party even before meeting Broker A.

The content revealed that Shin planned to kill anyone who came to inspect forged department store gift certificates, make them disappear along with the certificates, and collect billions of won in penalties from the buyer side.

The prosecution's conclusion is that the entire crime was premeditated—from the 50 billion won worth of forged department store gift certificates prepared a month prior, to the large freezer installed a week before, and the request made a day prior for an elderly woman to be sent to inspect the certificates.

Shin, who ran a large café and accumulated over 1 billion won in debt, focused more on a contingency plan in case the forgery was discovered, while intending to pocket the transaction proceeds if the deal went through without being caught.

Consequently, the female victim, who was unaware it was a premeditated crime and believed she only needed to verify the gift certificates, was trapped in a minus 25 degrees Celsius freezer for 27 hours and found dead.

The prosecution concluded that it was a sole crime, stating that individuals pointed out by Shin as accomplices during police investigations had no knowledge of the forged gift certificates or the murder plot.

Yesterday (October 1), the prosecution indicted Shin in custody on charges including murder of an abducted person, as well as the forgery and uttering of securities.

(Video Editing: Kim Ho-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.