The suspect who locked a woman inside a cafe freezer storage unit and killed her in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, is understood to have directly printed and stored fake gift certificates worth approximately 50 billion won inside the freezer with the intention of selling them.

From the initial stage of the victim's disappearance to the arrest and the motive for the crime, the suspect's statements have continuously changed and contained numerous loopholes, prompting police to investigate while keeping various possibilities open.

According to investigative authorities on the 9th, the suspect in his 30s, surnamed A, lied not only to the police but also to acquaintances of the victim from the time the 60-year-old female victim, surnamed B, went missing.

In the early hours of the 4th when B's disappearance was reported, A made false statements to the detective in charge of the missing persons case regarding the final location where he parted ways with the victim and her subsequent whereabouts.

He also lied about his own whereabouts to B's acquaintances connected to the case, as well as to the police.

Having caught discrepancies between A's statements and B's actual whereabouts, police investigated and captured footage of A and B entering the cafe together, with only A coming out alone.

Police pressed A for answers, and A eventually confessed to locking B inside the freezer storage unit.

Even after his arrest, A continuously changed his account regarding the details and motive of the crime.

In the early stages of the investigation, he claimed there was a penalty fee issue related to a gift certificate transaction.

However, A later changed his statement, saying, "I showed the gift certificates to B in the freezer storage unit, and she realized they were fake, so I committed the crime."

Regarding the reason he rented and installed the freezer storage unit in the cafe yard last month, he initially stated he brought it in with murder in mind, but later reversed his statement, claiming, "I thought it would be harder to tell if they were fake if I kept the gift certificates in a cold freezer."

Currently, he is claiming that the crime was accidental, stating that he panicked and shut the refrigerator door because B easily noticed that the gift certificates he had prepared were fake.

Given that B's alleged realization that the gift certificates were fake may also be a lie, the police are comprehensively reviewing statements and evidence based on contents from smartphone forensics.

Investigations showed that A took and kept B's smartphone before she entered the storage unit.

After the time of B's disappearance, her phone was repeatedly turned on and off in places unrelated to the crime, and police are verifying whether A did this with the intent to throw off the investigation.

It was found that the fake gift certificates kept by A were not obtained elsewhere, but were directly printed by A after commissioning a company under the pretext of using them for "filming."

They were reportedly packed in 10 boxes of 500,000 won gift certificates per sheet, with the word "for filming" marked on the exterior.

A is known to have attempted to sell these gift certificates to brokers who conduct large-scale cash transactions of gift certificates, commonly known as "gift certificate cash-outs."

Typically, gift certificate cash-out transactions do not involve direct meetings between buyers and sellers; instead, a third party such as a broker steps in the middle to verify the counterfeiting of the items and deliver the funds.

A is also believed to have tried to sell the gift certificates in this manner, and B is reported to have attempted to play an intermediate role in this transaction, such as appraising the gift certificates.

The overall transaction, including whether there was an actual buyer trying to purchase a large quantity of gift certificates, is currently under investigation.

Meanwhile, the police have booked and are investigating C, an acquaintance who drove and gave victim B a ride from Seoul to Paju, on charges of counterfeiting valuable securities.

It is reported that no charges related to the murder have been found against C so far.

As a result of an autopsy performed on B's body by the National Forensic Service, the preliminary verbal finding indicated no external injuries.

Although the exact time of death could not be determined because the body was frozen, the police estimate that she died from hypothermia and oxygen deprivation after being confined in a freezer storage unit kept below minus 20 degrees Celsius.

The police are analyzing and comparing A's statements with confirmed evidence while investigating various possibilities.

In particular, because there are many murky aspects—such as the lack of a sensible reason to brutally kill B, who was merely playing an intermediate role in the transaction—authorities are concentrating their investigative power on this matter.