'Eunhae Lee and Hyunsoo Jo Indicted for "Valley Murder"...Prosecutors Claim Victim Was Gaslighted'

Suspects in the 'Valley Murder Case' Lee Eun-hae (left) and Jo Hyun-soo [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Suspects in the "Valley Murder Case," Lee Eunhae (31) and Jo Hyunsoo (30), have been brought to trial.

The prosecution concluded that this case was a premeditated crime aimed at the deceased victim's life insurance money, and it is believed that Lee had been gaslighting her husband, the victim, for several years.

The Criminal Division 2 of Incheon District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Changsoo) indicted Lee and Jo on the 4th on charges of murder, attempted murder, and attempted violation of the Special Act on the Prevention of Insurance Fraud, detaining them in custody.

Lee is accused of killing her husband A (39 years old at the time of death) together with her lover Jo in June 2019 at Yongsogye Valley in Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi Province.

The prosecution believes that they forced A, who could not swim at all, to jump into a 3-meter-deep valley pool without any basic equipment, resulting in his death.

The prosecution applied the charge of "commission murder," which refers to direct killing, rather than "omission murder," which applies when someone deliberately fails to rescue despite being able to do so.

Lee and others are also accused of attempting to kill A in February 2019 by feeding him food mixed with pufferfish poison at a pension in Yangyang-gun, Gangwon Province, but the toxicity was below the lethal dose, resulting in an attempted murder. Additionally, three months earlier, they allegedly tried to kill A by drowning him at a fishing spot in Yongin-si, Gyeonggi Province.

B (30), a friend of Jo who played in the water with A before his death at the valley, is also charged with murder and other offenses. He has 18 prior convictions and is currently detained for another fraud case.

The prosecution believes that they planned the crime to claim 800 million won in life insurance taken out in A’s name.

They disappeared before the prosecution’s second investigation on December 14 last year and were caught by the police on the 16th of last month at an officetel near Samsong Station in Goyang City after four months on the run.

According to the prosecution’s investigation, Lee and others planned to continue hiding until the lead prosecutor in charge of their case at Incheon District Prosecutors' Office was transferred. They also prepared and kept a press release criticizing the investigating prosecutor, indicating they were preparing for the prosecution’s investigation and the upcoming trial.

The prosecution recently arrested two men in their 30s who helped them during their time on the run and is investigating two other accomplices.

Meanwhile, the prosecution stated in the indictment that Lee engaged in so-called "gaslighting" against her husband A. Gaslighting is an act of subtly manipulating the other person’s psychology or situation to impair their judgment and strengthen control over them.

The prosecution revealed that Lee exploited A economically after they started dating in 2011 and continued to exploit him even after marrying him in March 2017, while living with and dating other men.

The prosecution believes Lee thoroughly controlled A’s daily life, drove him into severe hardship, isolated him from family and friends, and made him unable to refuse or resist her demands.

The "Valley Murder Case" was initially closed as an unattended death case by Gapyeong Police Station after A’s death, but was reopened in October 2019 following a tip-off from an acquaintance of the bereaved family to Ilsan Western Police Station in Gyeonggi Province.

Lee and Jo were transferred without detention to the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors' Office Goyang Branch in December 2020 on charges of murder and attempted violation of the Special Act on the Prevention of Insurance Fraud. The case was then transferred to Incheon District Prosecutors' Office, which has jurisdiction over the suspects’ residence, and the investigation into the "Valley Murder Case" intensified.

This case was brought to public attention in October 2020 through the SBS program "Unanswered Questions" under the title "The Last Dive of That Day ? The Mystery of the Gapyeong Valley Drowning Incident."