"Unshaken Even After the Crime... Possible Psychopath"
Police Conduct Psychopath Tendency Test... Follow-up Investigation Continues
Suspect Jeong Yujeong in the murder case of a peer female. Provided by Busan Metropolitan Police Agency.
Jeong Yujeong (23), who murdered a peer woman she met through an online tutoring app and disposed of the body, is drawing attention regarding whether she is a psychopath as evidence emerged that she planned the crime in advance.
According to the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency and Geumjeong Police Station on the 1st, Jeong Yujeong, who was arrested on charges including murder, confessed during police interrogation on the 31st of last month, saying, "I did it because I wanted to try killing." Jeong is accused of killing the victim with a weapon around 5:30 p.m. on the 26th of last month at the victim's home in Geumjeong-gu, Busan, and then disposing of the body.
According to the police, Jeong Yujeong joined the tutoring app as a parent member with children and searched for a tutor. She exchanged messages with the victim, A, for 2 to 3 days and arranged to visit A's home, asking for a trial lesson.
On the day of the crime, Jeong Yujeong wore a school uniform purchased from an online secondhand marketplace to deceive A into thinking she was a student, visited A, and is accused of killing A with a weapon while A was defenseless. It is known that she mutilated the victim's body at her own home and disposed of part of the body.
Initially, Jeong claimed it was an 'impulsive crime,' but the police gave weight to the possibility of a planned crime. Forensic results showed that she had searched for terms like 'murder' and 'murder without a body' for three months prior and had borrowed numerous crime-related novels from the library.
Professor Oh Yoonseong of the Department of Police Administration at Soonchunhyang University also sees signs of a planned crime. In an interview with YTN's 'News Live' on the same day, Professor Oh explained, "She joined the tutoring app to look for the victim and created a story that she was a parent with a high school student child to approach her."
Professor Oh believes Jeong Yujeong may have psychopathic tendencies. Considering that she killed and mutilated the body of someone she had no acquaintance with and did not show significant emotional disturbance after the murder, there is a possibility of psychopathy.
Professor Oh added, "She might have gotten hints from crime novels she usually read, and Jeong said she had no friends in high school and was alone, so I think she might have been fantasizing alone and trying to realize her crime."
When violent crimes occur, there is much interest in whether the suspect has psychopathic tendencies. Lee Giyeong (32), involved in the recently notorious 'taxi and cohabitant murder case,' and Lee Eunhae (32), involved in the 'valley murder case,' also underwent psychopathy tests. Psychopaths exhibit antisocial personality disorder traits, being aggressive, violent, skilled at lying, and having difficulty empathizing with others' emotions.
However, committing a brutal crime does not necessarily mean one is a psychopath. Ko Yujeong, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019 for murdering her husband and mutilating and disposing of the body, and Kim Taehyeon, who killed a stalking victim and their family in an apartment in Nowon-gu, Seoul, in 2021, both committed cruel crimes but were found not to be psychopaths.
The police are currently assessing Jeong Yujeong's psychopathic tendencies. Jeong's identity was disclosed following the decision of the Personal Information Disclosure Review Committee that afternoon.
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