Not so safe?

I had dinner with my co-teachers earlier tonight and they told me that a local Korean woman was murdered by her husband recently. I was quite shocked! I've always thought of Korea as a safe place. Well, it IS. No place goes without any crime. My co-teachers told me that the husband had chopped up his wife's body and threw it in the reservoir in my city. I tried to search for an article online and after several google searches, I found this from yonhapnews.co.kr:


GWANGJU, Sept. 20 (Yonhap) -- The body of a local police officer's wife has been found here, four days after the woman was allegedly killed and mutilated by her husband, police said Monday.

Investigators at Gwangju Seobu Police Station said they retrieved a black bag carrying the woman's torso cut into three parts and her amputated fingers, and another plastic bag with the remaining parts of the body from a reservoir here, 329 kilometers south of Seoul.

The murder suspect, identified as a 57-year-old lieutenant surnamed Kim, was pronounced brain-dead Monday afternoon after an unsuccessful suicide attempt in the middle of police questioning, according to the investigators.

Police discovered the body one day after Kim, who used to work at the same police station, was taken into custody on suspicion of having strangled his 43-year-old wife during a quarrel at their home last week. Before the suicide attempt, Kim was quoted by police as saying that he had frequent arguments with his wife over her late returns home and regular overnight absences. Kim said he strangled his wife, identified only by her surname Baik, after she came home late from drinking.

The couple, who had been married for 18 years with a 9-year-old daughter, had filed for divorce last month.

Police said Kim appeared to have tried to confuse investigators by claiming that he cut up his wife's body and placed it in 13 separate plastic bags, which he buried in nearby neighborhoods.

Kim also tried to cover up his actions by reporting to duty the day after the crime and reporting his wife as missing, police said. He went further by parking his wife's car outside the clothes shop that she ran and making phone calls there to check on her whereabouts.

Investigators, however, suspected Kim's involvement after finding bloodstains in his car and at his home, and after hearing his daughter's original testimony that she saw her mother lying down the morning after the crime. She later tried to reverse her account after Kim told her that he may be punished if she told the truth.

Police had planned to request an arrest warrant for Kim later Monday on charges including murder, but are facing delays after the suspect attempted to kill himself by swallowing toilet paper in the bathroom. He had tried to kill himself by doing the same during questioning on Sunday but was stopped by the police.

My co-teacher said that she knew the lady because she owns a clothing shop near her home. I asked her the store name and she told me. When we dropped her off today, we passed by the store and it was closed and the windows were covered with newspaper. It's such a tragic story!