[Anchor]

As we reported yesterday, on September 7, a frozen body was discovered inside the freezer of a cafe in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Police are expanding their investigation, focusing on the possibility that the crime was premeditated, based on the suspect cafe owner's statement that the freezer was installed for the purpose of confinement.

Reporter Jeong Jiyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

The suspect in his 30s, identified as A, was arrested on charges of luring and murdering a woman in her 60s at a cafe he operated in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

Located in the parking lot next to the cafe building is a container-style freezer where the victim's body was discovered on September 4.

Residents near the cafe reportedly stated that they had never seen the freezer there until last week.

The freezer is also not visible in a video of the cafe parking lot uploaded to social media around mid-August.

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

Police have reportedly confirmed through CCTV footage that A visited the cafe multiple times even after locking the victim inside the freezer.

Police also confirmed that an acquaintance accompanied the victim when she visited Paju.

This acquaintance reportedly notified the family after being unable to reach the victim, who had visited the cafe under the pretext of conducting a gift certificate transaction.

Furthermore, police have reportedly secured a statement from A indicating that he built the freezer to confine her if his forgery of gift certificates was discovered.

Based on this statement, police are expanding their investigation with the possibility that the victim was premeditately murdered while entangled in a tens of billions of won gift certificate forgery fraud case.

Gift certificates with a face value estimated at 50 billion won, suspected of being forged, were found inside the freezer.

Police are questioning the detained suspect A to verify the authenticity and distribution channels of the gift certificates, while also checking for any potential accomplices.

(Camera: Kim Nam-sung | Video Editing: Chae Cheol-ho)