스모킹건
“This crime shakes the foundations of society and cannot be tolerated.”
The Suwon City Criminal Court has handed down a verdict: death. Never in the 21st century has a crime so much upset this large city on the outskirts of Seoul, in the Gyeonggi region. For six long hours, the named WU YUANCHUN methodically cut the body of a young woman of 28 years old into 280 pieces… The last KSIS of the year, take place for this monthly appointment to give you chills.
On April 1, 2012, at 10:50 p.m., a police station in the region receives a telephone call from a woman whose hidden identity is called “G”. The strangled voice, trying to be as quiet as possible, and crying, she calls:
« This is the 112 police. Please go ahead. »
« I’m at the house before Motgol playground. I’m being sexually assaulted right now. I don’t know the exact location. »
« Jidong? »
« Yes, just past Jidong Elementary School, on the way to Motgol playground. »
« Let me just check your location using your mobile phone. You’re saying you’re being assaulted right now? »
«Yes, yes. »
[…]
« You don’t know the exact location? Can you tell me the address again ? »
And in a cry, the call was cut off. For nearly seven minutes, the police questioned her again and again about the exact address where she was, although she had specified that she had been kidnapped as she returned home after having dinner outside. She, who came from a family with modest incomes, preferred to walk for a kilometer rather than take a taxi, a decision that will cost her life. The lack of reaction from the police, who seemed to focus on details rather than sending a patrol that was seven minutes away from the crime scene, was also questioned in this case.
Twenty police officers were present at the station that night, hearing the call, but they consider it was probably a married couple who were arguing. Despite their obvious proximity to the victim, they still took thirteen hours to find her, but it was already too late. When the police arrived on the scene, they found WU finishing his cut, leaving nothing recognizable from G’s body.
At his trial, held a month later, WU told that on returning home he was accidentally pushed by G, and in an outburst of rage, he wanted to rape her to punish her. He managed to drag her home, and tried twice to attack her. She managed to fight back, until annoyed he left the apartment briefly where she took advantage of it to call the police. When he returned, with a wrench, he struck her two violent blows to the head, then strangled her until she gave her last breath.
Six hours after the incident, WU bought 14 plastic bags to dispose of the body parts of the young woman. Such violence surprised more than one person, the then 42-year-old man being known to be discreet and silent. Chinese by origin, he was born in 1970 in the village of Xianguang, in an autonomous Mongolian region of rural China. Married, with a son, he decided in 2007 to move to South Korea on a work visa in order to provide for his family by sending them money every month. He, who earned no more than €1,300 per month (2 million won), worked on construction sites all over the country.
He moved to Suwon in October 2020. The police were unable to locate G’s location on his phone, so they had to seek help from the Fire and Accident Management Centre, which had access to the surrounding homes’ GPS locations. It was also revealed from the city’s surveillance cameras that police were patrolling around the telephone pole that had bordered the call, rather than around the Montgol playground and Jidong School. Over KSIS we could discover how the lack of reactivity or logic of the Korean police in some cases led to many crimes, and this one is again an example.
When the police finally entered WU’s home, they found a large number of saws and knives, 14 plastic bags filled with G’s remains, as well as several photos and magazines of naked women. The man is described as potentially sexually frustrated, living separated from his wife for five years. A sharpening stone was also found near the crime scene, as WU had to sharpen his knife several times by cutting the poor young woman’s body. When asked what had happened to lead to this monstrous crime and assault, he said to the judges:
« I was drunk and in a bad mood. I accidentally killed her. » — WU YUANCHUN
Fourteen forensic doctors were called in for the autopsy, to reconstruct the body. The carnage was such that many of them did not manage to eat anything for a few days, traumatized by what they had seen. They managed to estimate a death time between three and six hours after the call, suggesting that G was alive while she was being cut, WU having failed to strangle her. It was also found that her stomach did not have time to digest the meal she had eaten around 8:30 pm that night, probably because of the high level of stress caused by the aggression.
However, the condition of the body did not allow to know whether or not there was sexual assault. But, as the first thing he tried to do when he kidnapped his victim, there is a good chance that he succeeded. On 15 June 2012, WU was sentenced to death and if he is ever released on parole, he will have to wear an electronic bracelet for 30 years. Although the death penalty has been suspended since 1988, it is not officially abolished, with the last execution being carried out in 1997.
Such a heavy sentence was imposed because of the particularly horrible and methodical character that WU showed in killing its victim. In addition, a theory emerged during the trial that was held to increase his sentence, that of his participation in an alleged human trafficking. Between April 2011 and April 2012, Korean customs authorities intercepted 35,000 human flesh capsules from China. Some of them were found on sale in traditional markets, sold by Koreans of Chinese origin, claiming that the capsules had great nutritional values to be healthier and have better skin.
This theory is supported by the number of knives found at WU, and also by the cutting of 280 pieces cut in a nearly uniform way. If G’s murder was really an accident, he probably wouldn’t have taken six hours to cut her into as many small pieces to put in bags, but would rather have tried to get rid of the body quickly. In addition, it was found that he had four mobile phones, each with its call history deleted between December 2011 and February 2012, as if to hide traces.
On the capsules that were searched by customs, therefore not having a direct link with WU, traces of hepatitis B as well as many other bacteria were found. Other than ethically, the consumption of these capsules was therefore highly dangerous for health, and it is possible that even today it circulates in the world. As for WU, he appealed his death sentence on yhr 18th of October, 2012, and his sentence was reconsidered to life imprisonment, the court recognizing the lack of prime evidences to link him to trafficking.
Two years after the second trial, G’s family this time sued the police, claiming they had failed in their original duty to protect and help citizens. The slowness of the reaction of the police was pointed out, but also the fact that they did not take the call seriously earlier, trying to minimize the facts. Indeed, the police defended that the call had lasted only one minute and a half, too little to identify the location, while the call history proves that it exceeded six minutes.
An initial compensation of 360 million won was requested (about $280,000), and the family won after two appeals, one in 2016 and one in 2017. The amount paid was not disclosed to the public, but G’s family remains convinced that WU was not its first trial, but would have killed others given its modus operandi and meticulous dismemberment.
Do you think the family is right? Would you have also filed a complaint against the police? We’ll meet next year for some new stories with KSTATION Investigation Service!
Journalist : Pillet Anaïs
Sources: KSTATION TV, Sous les photos
