Man Arrested After 16 Years for Murdering Girlfriend

A man from South Korea has been arrested on murder charges after admitting he killed his girlfriend and concealed her body for 16 years. The woman had been missing for years until recent developments in the case.

In his 50s, the man confessed to local authorities that he struck the woman with a blunt object during an argument in his apartment located in Geoje. Following the incident, he placed her body in a suitcase and buried it beneath bricks and cement on his balcony.

The body was uncovered last month, August 2024, by a maintenance worker who found it while performing drilling work, as reported by local news outlets.

Authorities were able to identify the body through fingerprint analysis, revealing that it belonged to the missing woman. An autopsy confirmed that she died from blunt force trauma to the head.

The suspect, referred to as Mr. A, was not living in the apartment at the time the body was found but was soon tracked down and taken into custody. He explained that he and the victim had cohabited for approximately five years before the fatal argument in October 2008. After the altercation, he buried her in a suitcase under a mixture of bricks and cement on a balcony accessible only from one of the bedrooms.

Following the incident, he lived in the apartment for an additional eight years until his arrest in 2016 for drug-related offenses. Since then, the landlord has left the property vacant, using it primarily for storage.

The woman, who was in her 30s at the time of her death, was not reported missing by her family until three years later. They had lost contact with her and were informed that she had left Geoje after splitting up with Mr. A.

This case remained unresolved until a waterproofing project initiated by the building owner this year led to the discovery of the body. Police are conducting further investigations and anticipate formally charging the suspect with murder.