Goyujeong Life Sentence... Why Did the Stepson's Death Remain an Unsolved Case?

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Ko Yoo-jeong, who was tried on charges of brutally murdering her ex-husband, was ultimately sentenced to life imprisonment. However, she was acquitted of the charge of killing her stepson. Amid ongoing criticism that the initial investigation by the police and prosecution was inadequate, this case is likely to remain an "unsolved cold case" unless clear additional evidence emerges in the future.

On the 5th, the Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Kim Seon-su) upheld the life sentence in the appeal trial of Ko, who was indicted on charges of murder, corpse mutilation, and corpse concealment.

However, she was acquitted of the charge of killing her stepson. Ko was also indicted for allegedly causing the suffocation death of her stepson (then 4 years old), the son of her husband’s ex-wife, while he was sleeping in March last year after her remarriage, but she was acquitted in both the first and second trials.

The stepson’s death occurred two months before Ko murdered her ex-husband, at an apartment in Cheongju. In the early stages of the investigation, the police and prosecution excluded Ko from suspicion regarding the stepson’s death, as she had slept in a different room. The police suspected simple suffocation, possibly caused by the father’s sleeping habits pressing on the child, who had shared the same bed.

After Ko’s ex-husband’s murder charge surfaced, the Cheongju police and prosecution belatedly placed Ko under suspicion. It was later confirmed that Ko had been prescribed sleeping pills before the stepson’s death, that sleeping pills were found in her second husband Hong’s body, and that Ko had searched for news articles about "pillow suffocation of a dementia patient" before the stepson’s death. However, during the period when Ko was not under suspicion, she had discarded the mattress, electric blanket, bed sheets, and blankets that bore traces of the stepson’s death.

The prosecution analyzed that the stepson died from suffocation caused by strong external force, that Ko had been prescribed sleeping pills four months before the incident, and that she harbored resentment toward her husband’s attitude of caring for the stepson more than for a miscarried child.

Additional evidence was also presented. This included Ko blaming the husband’s sleeping habits for the stepson’s death, her searching for news about pillow suffocation of dementia patients, and discarding the blood-stained mattress immediately after the incident.

However, the first and second trials ruled that the evidence submitted by the prosecution was insufficient to prove Ko’s motive for killing her stepson or to conclude that she committed the crime, and thus acquitted her. Without direct evidence, only circumstantial evidence was available to apply the murder charge to Ko.

The Supreme Court also judged that the possibility of "positional asphyxia," where the child was suffocated by being pressed against the sleeping father’s legs, could not be ruled out. It found it difficult to specify the motive, cause of death, or time of death based solely on the prosecution’s evidence. While the possibility that the stepson suffocated by being pressed against the sleeping husband’s body was considered low, it was also difficult to definitively conclude that Ko was responsible.

The bereaved family expressed their frustration. Hong, the biological father of Ko’s stepson, stated through his legal representative after the Supreme Court ruling, "The hope that the Supreme Court would make a substantive and reasonable judgment has been shattered, and we cannot hide our devastation."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.