40s Man Arrested for Killing Stepmother and Secretly Burying Her... "Risk of Escape"

A man in his 40s who killed his 70-year-old stepmother over financial issues and secretly buried her body in his biological father's hometown was arrested.

Seoul Yeongdeungpo Police Station [Photo by Yonhap News]

On the 19th, Yanghyeongkwon, Chief Judge of the Seoul Southern District Court, conducted a pre-arrest detention hearing for Baemossi, a man in his 40s accused of murder and corpse disposal, and issued an arrest warrant citing "risk of flight."

Baemossi, who appeared at the court at 2:20 p.m. for the warrant hearing, answered "Yes" when asked by reporters if he admitted to the charges, and when asked whether the crime was premeditated, he replied, "I suddenly got angry." Regarding the reason for the killing, he said, "There were various problems."

Baemossi is accused of killing his stepmother, a woman in her 70s named Imossi, on the evening of the 19th of last month at her residence in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, following a dispute over money, and then secretly burying her body near a reed field by a river in Yecheon, Gyeongbuk. Yecheon is the hometown of Imossi’s late ex-husband and Baemossi’s biological father.

The police began searching for the missing Imossi after receiving a report on the 13th from a welfare officer at the local community center, who noted that Imossi had been out of contact for a week. Two days later, on the 15th, police confirmed that 300,000 won had been withdrawn from Imossi’s bank account, prompting them to shift the investigation from a simple missing person case to a suspected murder case. Although Imossi was neither a basic livelihood security recipient nor under the community center’s management, neighbors became suspicious after Imossi’s pet dog kept barking inside the house, leading the community center to check on her.

After being identified as a suspect, Baemossi turned off his mobile phone and fled. He was apprehended on the 17th at 8:20 p.m. at a motel in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, and the next day, on the 18th at 10:30 a.m., police discovered Imossi’s body in Yecheon, Gyeongbuk.

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