Grudge Over 'Annulment' Lawsuit? Police Probe Suspect's Motive in Mother-in-Law's Murder

[Anchor]

The 20-something man arrested for killing his mother-in-law yesterday (October 11) was also under investigation for domestic violence. With a lawsuit having been filed against him claiming the marriage itself was invalid, police are intensively investigating whether these circumstances were linked to his motive.

Reporter Im Jihyeon has the story.

[Reporter]

The suspect, surnamed Kim, who allegedly murdered his mother-in-law and fled to Yangyang in Gangwon Province, was escorted to the Songpa Police Station in Seoul at around 6:30 p.m. yesterday.

[Suspect Surnamed Kim / Murder Suspect of Mother-in-Law: (Do you have anything to say to the victim? Why did you flee from the scene?) I will explain everything during the investigation.]

Police first located the wife at around 10:30 a.m., about five hours after the incident occurred, and subsequently emergency-arrested Kim nearby at around 12:30 p.m., bringing him to the station.

Kim reportedly parted ways with his wife halfway up a mountain, telling her, "Let's go our separate ways."

Police are intensively interrogating Kim to determine whether he committed the crime out of a grudge against his wife's family amid the marriage annulment lawsuit.

They are also questioning him about whether the investigation into habitual domestic violence served as the motive, given that he committed the crime yesterday, just a day after failing to comply with a police summons scheduled for the day before yesterday.

Meanwhile, police provided the wife, who reported suffering domestic violence, with a personal protection smart watch on September 2.ฝ่าย

This was a preemptive measure taken because Kim was deemed to have a high risk of reoffending. However, police investigation revealed that the smart watch's power had remained turned off since September 15.

Police suspect that the smart watch battery ran out because there was no additional charging activity.

However, apart from the possibility of reoffending, police added that securing Kim's custody was not deemed urgent because there were no visible injuries on the wife outwardly.

Yet, while police initiated procedures to extend the restraining order after it expired at the end of last month, Kim ended up committing the crime.

(Video reporting: In Pil-sung, Cho Chang-hyun | Video editing: Kim Jong-tae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.