The owner of a cafe in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, where the body of a woman in her 60s was discovered, reportedly posted a notice of temporary closure on the day of the crime and announced normal operations starting the following day.

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

At the time, a notice was posted on the cafe's announcement board stating that operations would be suspended on September 3 due to internal store matters, and that normal business would resume starting on the 4th.

However, operations came to a halt after police, who launched an investigation following a missing person report filed by the family of the victim around midnight on September 4, discovered the frozen body of the woman inside a refrigerated container at the cafe that same afternoon.

This circumstance suggests that had 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 placed under arrest the day before.

A had been involved in so-called gift certificate cashing, purchasing certificates to convert them into cash, and it was found that the deceased 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, "The gift certificates are in the storage room," and committed the crime after the victim realized that A was trying to sell counterfeit gift certificates.

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 specific details of the crime, including whether the victim was murdered and then left, or locked inside the freezer and died.

(Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Lee Eui-seon | Design by Lee Su-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)