Woman in her 60s found dead in cafe freezer in South Korea
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A cafe owner has been arrested and detained on suspicion of luring and killing the woman.
PHOTO: AFP
- A woman in her 60s was found dead inside a freezer at a cafe in Paju, South Korea, after being reported missing on Sept 4.
- The cafe owner, a man in his 30s, was arrested on suspicion of luring and killing the woman; counterfeit gift certificates were found at the scene.
- Police are investigating the cause of death and possible links between the counterfeit certificates and the crime; an autopsy will determine how the woman died.
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SEOUL – A woman in her 60s who had been reported missing was found dead inside a 30 sq m, container-like freezer at a cafe in Paju, in South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province, local police said on Sept 7.
The cafe’s owner, a man in his 30s, has been arrested and detained on suspicion of luring and killing the woman. A court issued a warrant for his arrest on Sept 6.
The woman was reported missing in Seoul at around midnight on Sept 4. Police traced her mobile phone’s location and found her frozen body near the entrance of the freezer at around 2pm that same day.
The temperature inside was reportedly several tens of degrees below zero.
Police identified the cafe owner as a suspect because he had been with the woman around the time of her disappearance. He was arrested in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.
The victim and the suspect are believed to have met for the first time at the cafe on Sept 3. The woman had reportedly visited to discuss gift certificates with the suspect, who was involved in converting gift certificates into cash.
Investigators believe the suspect led the woman into the freezer after telling her that gift certificates were stored there. Police found counterfeit department store gift certificates with a combined face value of tens of billions of won inside.
Police are investigating whether the counterfeit certificates were connected to the meeting or the alleged crime.
An autopsy will be conducted to determine whether the woman was killed inside the freezer and left there or died after being locked inside alive.
The suspect had reportedly told employees not to come to work and kept the cafe closed from Sept 3. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK