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Police have announced the results of their investigation while transferring the suspect in the Paju frozen warehouse murder case to the prosecution under arrest. It was revealed that after installing a frozen warehouse to confine people, the suspect requested a woman as a business partner the day before the crime.

Reporter Cho Min-ki has the story.

[Reporter]

A man wearing a hat and bowing his head sits in the back seat of a police transport bus. He is the 39-year-old suspect in the Paju frozen warehouse murder case, surnamed Shin.

Transferring Shin to the prosecution under arrest on charges including the murder of an abducted person, as well as the forgery and uttering of securities, police stated that Shin committed the crime to make a huge profit by selling forged department store gift certificates worth 50 billion won.

Initially, the gift certificates were supposed to be appraised by a gift store broker, Mr. A, who had brought the victim to Paju. However, investigations showed that the day before the incident, Shin requested, "I wish a woman would come," leading the victim—an acquaintance of Mr. A—to take over the role instead.

It appears Shin judged that a woman would be easier to target, and police have uncovered several other circumstances indicating that Shin planned the crime in advance.

First, Shin began preparing for the frozen warehouse in mid-July, inquired about rentals on the 3rd of last month, and installed the frozen warehouse in his cafe one week before the incident through a one-month lease contract.

A police official said, "It appears that Shin installed the frozen warehouse for the purpose of confining anyone who might interfere if a problem arose during the transaction, and confined the victim out of concern that the forgery of the gift certificates would be exposed to the outside."

While Shin claims that he did not plan the murder from the beginning and that it was an accidental crime, police maintain that they can prove Shin confined the woman knowing that she could die as a result.

However, the investigation thus far indicates that no one other than Shin participated in murdering the woman.

Police plan to continue their investigation into individuals involved in the production and distribution of the forged gift certificates.

(Video Reporter: Lee Sang-hak, Video Editor: Choi Hye-ran, Design: Yang Gi-tae)