Missing woman, suspect in murder case found dead

The National Forensic Service (NFS) has concluded that a 22-year-old female student found dead Wednesday after being reported missing was strangled to death, local police said.

The body was found Wednesday morning near a stream in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi. The victim’s clothes had been removed, and her clothes and other belongings were discovered near the body.

Authorities said the suspect in the case, a 45-year-old man surnamed Yun, was also found dead, hanged on a tree on a mountain near the reservoir in Wonju, Gangwon, just hours before police found the victim.

Authorities began their investigation after the girl’s boyfriend reported her disappearance early Tuesday morning. According to police, he said that after the couple passed out on a street near Suwon Station, a man woke him up, telling him he needed to buy tissues because his girlfriend had vomited.

When he returned, he said, his girlfriend and the man were gone.

Authorities believe the suspect got the victim into his car near the station around midnight on Tuesday, reportedly driving her 500meters (0.31 miles) away to the construction company where he worked as an executive and killing her in the men’s bathroom on the third floor.

Police said there was evidence indicating that there had been a scuffle, and one of the victim’s shoes was also found at the scene.

CCTV footage in the area shows Yun dragging the victim into the building and then carrying her out of the building and placing her into the passenger’s seat in his car about an hour later. He then moved her to the trunk of the vehicle.

Police confirmed that the suspect traveled to Pyeongtaek and abandoned the body, and then changed his clothes when he arrived at his home in Yongin, Gyeonggi, around 3 a.m.

They believe the suspect hanged himself near a reservoir in Wonju after stopping by the construction company near the station.

According to authorities, the NFS could not find evidence on the victim’s body to determine whether she had been sexually abused; an autopsy was conducted Thursday morning.

“The investigation is currently focusing on Yun’s motivation,” a police official said. “We haven’t found any connection between the suspect and victim.”

BY PARK SU-CHEOL, NAM YOON-SEO [nam.yoonseo@joongang.co.kr]