Mother Places 2-Month-Old Twins Face Down on Motel Bed... Charge Upgraded from Abuse Resulting in Death to Murder by Abuse

The police have applied the charge of child abuse homicide to a woman in her 20s who caused the death of her twin infant daughters, less than two months old, by laying them face down on a motel bed to sleep.

The Women and Juvenile Investigation Unit of the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency announced on the 8th that they changed the charge against Ms. A (24, female), who was previously detained on suspicion of child abuse causing death under the Special Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes, to child abuse homicide and sent her to the prosecution.

Ms. A is suspected of having laid her twin daughters, who were 49 days old, face down to sleep at a motel in Michuhol-gu, Incheon, in the early hours of the 1st, resulting in their deaths. During the police investigation, she stated, "Around 3 a.m., the children were crying severely, so I laid them face down with their faces toward the mattress."

The police judged that Ms. A was aware of the possibility that her daughters, who could not even properly hold up their heads, could die if laid face down, and that she had a form of indirect intent to kill. The police explained that although the daughters could not move their bodies on their own and could suffocate if laid face down blocking their mouths and noses, Ms. A neglected to continuously observe them and left them unattended.

Generally, if the suspect sufficiently anticipates the possibility of the victim’s death and has a recognition that death cannot be helped, the charge of "murder by indirect intent" is applied. The statutory penalty for child abuse causing death, which is applied when there is no intent to kill, is life imprisonment or imprisonment for five years or more. However, if child abuse homicide, which recognizes intent, is applied, the sentence can be death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for seven years or more.

A mother in her 20s, who laid her twin infant daughters, less than two months old, face down on a motel bed causing their deaths, is entering the Incheon District Court on the afternoon of the 4th to undergo a pre-arrest detention hearing. February 4, 2023.
Photo by Yonhap News

The police found that Mr. B, the stepfather in his 20s who was present at the motel at the time, was not related to the death of the twin sisters. However, the police confirmed circumstances of physical abuse by Mr. B during the upbringing process, such as hitting the twins’ buttocks with his hand last month, and referred him to the prosecution without detention on charges of child abuse under the Child Welfare Act.

According to the investigation, the couple living in Daejeon came to Incheon for a trip on the 31st of last month, one day before the incident, and stayed at a motel with their daughters. It was confirmed that the children’s births were registered in December of last year.

At 11:22 a.m. on the 1st, stepfather Mr. B called 119, reporting, "The two children are not breathing." When the 119 emergency medical team and police arrived at the scene, the twin sisters were found dead, lying face down on the bed inside the motel room, with livor mortis visible on their faces and abdomens. Livor mortis is a phenomenon where blood settles in the lower parts of the body after death, causing discoloration of the skin.

The National Forensic Service conducted an autopsy on the twin sisters’ bodies and delivered a preliminary verbal opinion to the police stating that "the possibility of death by suffocation cannot be ruled out."