The victim of a gruesome murder in Suwon is likely to have been strangled to death, autopsy results revealed Sunday, as the courts issued a warrant to arrest Park Chun-bong, who has confessed to the crime.
According to the police, the National Forensic Service found signs of strangulation on the dismembered body of the 48-year-old female victim. Park had told the police that the victim died from trauma to the head sustained when he pushed her during an argument.
Park has admitted to killing the woman, believed to be his ex-girlfriend, and brutally butchering her body before abandoning it.
On the way to the review hearing on his arrest warrant, Park apologized to the victim’s family but said that he could not remember why he dismembered the body.
The upper body of the woman was found without its head, arms, internal organs, except for both kidneys, in a black plastic bag on a hiking trail in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, last week.
The police have since found most of the victim’s body parts in Suwon and nearby Hwaseong.
Following Park’s confession, police released his photo to the media based on a law permitting this when there is sufficient evidence that the suspect of a certain brutal and grave crime has committed it.
By Choi He-suk and news reports (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)
