A young woman suspected of killing and dismembering another woman she had met online murdered the victim "out of curiosity," Busan police said Thursday.
Police said the woman, who was arrested Wednesday, was fixated on crime stories and committed the crime to see what it was like.
Identified as Jung Yoo-jung (23), she confessed to the killing and was indicted for murder on Friday. "Jung was found to have premeditated the crime driven by a desire to kill someone after she became obsessed with murder from TV programs and books," a police spokesman said.
She had initially told police she killed the victim over an argument, but confessed when she was confronted with contradictions in her evidence and urged by her family to tell the truth.
"Jung also said she feels sorry for what she did," the spokesman added. "We are conducting tests to see if she is a psychopath."
Police believe that she carefully planned the murder. Analysis of her mobile phone revealed that she searched the internet three months before the crime for tips on how to conceal a corpse and watched true crime shows on TV. She also borrowed crime books from a library.
Jung then went on the hunt for a victim and signed up for an app that connects parents with private tutors. She contacted the victim two days before the murder posing as the mother of a ninth grader interested in learning English. She told the victim her daughter would come to her home for a consultation.
On the day of the crime, Jung bought a school uniform on an online flea market and knocked on the door of the victim's home, posing as the student. Once inside, Jung stabbed her with a knife.
"Jung is short, and with the uniform on, the victim probably mistook her for a middle-school student," the police spokesman said.
After the murder, Jung went to a nearby supermarket and bought large bin bags and bleach. She then dismembered the victim and placed some of the body parts in a suitcase that she dumped in a wooded area on the banks of the Nakdong River.
"In order to make it look like the victim had disappeared, Jung kept the victim's mobile phone, ID card and wallet, attempting to commit a perfect crime," police said. But the taxi driver who took her to the area where she dumped the body parts alerted police, who found blood-stained clothes in the bags. The rest of the body was found at Jung's house.
The grisly crime resembles the case of Koh Yu-jeong, who killed her ex-husband after inviting him to a rental cottage on Jeju Island and threw his dismembered body into the sea in 2019.
"Jung was a loner and a recluse who has been unemployed since graduating from high school five years ago," police said.
