'Stalking Murder' Suspect Stole and Discarded Victim's Cell Phone...Evidence Destruction Suspicion

Suspect switches own mobile phone to airplane mode to disable calls and reception

Suspect A, a man in his 30s, who stalked and murdered a woman in her 30s [Photo by SBS News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] Circumstances have emerged indicating that a male suspect who stalked and killed a woman in her 30s tried to hide evidence of the crime.

According to an SBS report on the 21st, suspect A, who stalked his ex-girlfriend for about a year before killing her, took the victim's mobile phone and fled immediately after the crime.

It was later confirmed that A carried the phone for a while, then discarded it somewhere in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and fled to the provinces. He switched his own phone to airplane mode to disable incoming and outgoing calls.

The report states that the police have secured both phones and are reviewing digital forensics. They also suspect that A tried to delete stalking evidence such as contact history and threatening messages with the victim.

Earlier, at around 11:36 a.m. on the 19th, police received a report from a neighbor that a woman in her 30s, B, was found collapsed with blood on her head at an officetel in Jeodong, Jung-gu, Seoul.

The woman had been under police protection due to continuous stalking by her ex-boyfriend A since the 7th.

On the day of the incident, A was in front of B’s house from the morning. It is known that B was at home at that time.

At around 11:29 a.m., B made the first call using a smartwatch provided by the police. The police arrived at a location in Myeongdong, marked as A’s position, three minutes after the report but could not find B.

Four minutes later, B made a second call. The police arrived at B’s home, the crime scene, eight minutes later, but the incident had already occurred. B died while being transported to the hospital.

The neighbor’s report was made between B’s second call and the police’s arrival at the scene. This led to criticism suggesting that the police only went to A’s house after receiving the neighbor’s report.

In response, the police explained, "We were already heading to A’s house before receiving the neighbor’s report. Since we had information about the residence of the person under protection, we simultaneously dispatched units to both the Myeongdong location indicated by the smartwatch and A’s house."

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