Man in his 50s sentenced to 14 years for murdering cohabiting partner and secretly burying her in cement for 16 years

A man in his 50s was sentenced to a heavy prison term for killing his cohabiting girlfriend and burying her body in cement on the balcony of their residence for 16 years.

The Criminal Division 1 of the Tongyeong Branch of Changwon District Court, Gyeongnam (Chief Judge Kim Young-seok) announced on the 24th that Mr. A, who was indicted on murder charges, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Additionally, Mr. A was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison for violating the Narcotics Control Act and was ordered to complete 40 hours of a drug addiction rehabilitation program.

Gyeongnam Changwon District Court Tongyeong Branch. Photo by Se-ryeong Lee

Mr. A is accused of killing his cohabiting girlfriend, Ms. B, in a multi-family house in Geoje City by October 10, 2008, and concealing her body.

At the time, Mr. A became enraged after an argument over a relationship issue with Ms. B, who was in her 30s, and struck her head and face with a blunt object, causing her death. He then placed her body in a travel suitcase.

Mr. A moved the suitcase containing the body to the balcony, stacked bricks around it, poured about 10 cm thick cement over it, and hardened it to disguise it as a normal part of the house structure.

He lived in that house for about eight years until his arrest in 2016 on drug use charges.

The crime was uncovered 16 years later in August of last year when a worker called by the homeowner for leak repairs broke the concrete structure on the balcony and discovered the hidden suitcase.

A travel suitcase containing a corpse was found in the concrete structure of a veranda in a multi-family house in Tongyeong, Gyeongnam. Photo by Gyeongnam Police Agency

Earlier, the prosecution requested a 30-year prison sentence, stating, “Although Mr. A confessed to the crime, he poured cement over the body, making it difficult to uncover the substantive truth for 16 years, so please consider this.”

Due to concerns about the large sentencing gap between life imprisonment and fixed-term imprisonment, the upper limit for fixed-term imprisonment was revised to 30 years in 2010. However, since this case occurred in 2008 before the revision of the Criminal Act, the upper limit for fixed-term imprisonment was 15 years.

Considering this, the prosecution submitted a revised sentencing opinion to the court requesting 15 years for murder and 5 years for drug use.

On the day of sentencing, the court stated, “Mr. A committed the crime impulsively and it does not appear to have been meticulously planned in advance. However, considering that he buried the body to make it difficult to uncover the substantive truth and that the bereaved family requested severe punishment, we have taken these factors comprehensively into account,” explaining the reasons for the sentence.

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