40s Mother Sentenced to 7 Years for Killing Newborn Son and Putting Him in Freezer

A biological mother who killed her baby three days after birth and abandoned the body was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The Criminal Division 1 of the Tongyeong Branch of Changwon District Court in Gyeongnam sentenced Ms. A, a woman in her 40s, to seven years in prison on the 23rd for charges including murder and corpse abandonment.

Earlier, Ms. A was accused of giving birth to a son at a hospital in Changwon on October 15, 2017, and two days later going to a motel in Ulsan where she suffocated her three-day-old son by covering his mouth and nose.

The day after the murder, Ms. A returned to her workplace dormitory in Gimhae and is also accused of wrapping the deceased baby in a towel, cloth, and plastic bag multiple times, placing the body in a freezer, and abandoning it.

Changwon District Court, Gyeongnam.
Photo by Se-ryeong Lee

Ms. A’s crime was uncovered during an investigation by the Geoje Police Station, which was conducting an inquiry into unregistered births at the request of Geoje City.

At the time, when the police demanded confirmation of the baby's survival and a face-to-face meeting, Ms. A said, “I gave the child up for adoption,” then fled, but later surrendered as police pursuit intensified.

It was revealed that Ms. A became pregnant with her partner Mr. B, but when Mr. B did not want the baby to be born, she killed the baby citing financial difficulties and other reasons.

The baby’s body, which Ms. A had placed in the freezer, was not discovered because the refrigerator and its contents were discarded between 2018 and 2019.

The court stated, “Although she had the responsibility to protect and raise the baby, she abandoned that responsibility, killed the newborn, and even abandoned the body, making her guilt very serious. The baby, who was unable to protect its own life, must have ended its life in extreme pain.”

It added, “However, considering that she surrendered to the police, admitted to the entire crime, and showed deep remorse, the sentence is determined accordingly.”

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