Victim's Body Found Near Daecheong Dam, Identity Confirmed
Three Suspects Under Investigation for Cryptocurrency-Related Involvement
Police Investigate Motive, Circumstances, and Possible Accomplices
A group of suspects who kidnapped a woman by vehicle and murdered her in an apartment in Gangnam, Seoul, have been arrested by the police. The three kidnappers were reportedly under police investigation for a cryptocurrency (coin) related fraud case. However, it has not yet been clearly confirmed whether this incident is related to cryptocurrency or money. The police are investigating the details of their fraud case, the relationship between them and the victim woman, and the specific methods of the crime.
According to the Suseo Police Station in Seoul, at 11:46 p.m. on the 29th, a woman in her 40s was kidnapped by two men in front of an apartment in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu. Surveillance camera footage released by the police shows two men suddenly rushing out of the apartment complex and forcibly putting the victim into a Veloster passenger car.
The victim resisted but eventually collapsed and was dragged by them into the car, which immediately departed somewhere after taking the woman on board. The police received a witness report stating, "It seems the woman was forcibly put into the car and kidnapped," and identified suspects A (30) and B (36) through analysis of nearby CCTV footage.
The kidnappers then drove straight toward Daejeon. The next morning, after abandoning the vehicle used for the kidnapping in Daejeon, they rented a car and moved to Cheongju, Chungbuk. A small amount of bloodstains and a weapon presumed to have been used in the crime were found in the abandoned vehicle. After abandoning the rental car in Cheongju, they took a taxi around 9:30 a.m. on the 30th to move to Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province.
The police arrested A at Moran Station in Seongnam at around 10:45 a.m. on the 31st, and B at a motel in Sujeong-gu, Seongnam, at around 1:15 p.m. The police obtained statements indicating there were more accomplices and arrested C (35) in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, at around 5:40 p.m. on the 31st.
During interrogation, the suspects confessed to killing the victim and abandoning the body near Daecheong Dam. The police dispatched search personnel to the location indicated by the suspects and discovered the victim’s body in the afternoon of the 31st, confirming her identity.
The police are currently investigating whether there were additional crimes or other accomplices. In particular, they confirmed that all suspects were involved in cryptocurrency-related cases and under police investigation, and are probing the specific motive for the crime, the circumstances of the murder, and the relationship with the victim. They are also investigating which of the three suspects directly killed the woman. It is reported that one of them knew the victim, while the other two were strangers.
A police official said, “We are continuing to investigate the details of the crime, motives, and whether there are accomplices.”
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