Perpetrator of '12-Year Unsolved' Ulsan Cafe Owner Murder Case Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison

Court: "Crime committed against victim who was only kind to customer"

The perpetrator of the 'Ulsan Sinjeong-dong Coffeehouse Landlady Murder Case' was sentenced to 25 years in prison. This case remained unsolved for 12 years, but advances in DNA technology allowed the identification of the suspect through DNA collected from under the victim's fingernails.

On the 3rd, the 11th Criminal Division of the Ulsan District Court (Chief Judge Lee Daero) sentenced a 55-year-old man, Mr. A, who was tried on murder charges, to 25 years in prison and ordered him to wear an electronic location tracking device (electronic anklet) for 10 years.

Mr. A is accused of strangling Ms. B, a woman in her 50s who was the landlady of a coffeehouse in Sinjeong-dong, Nam-gu, Ulsan, on the night of January 9, 2012. Without any clear reason, he scattered sugar at the crime scene and fled, then disappeared for about 12 years.

At the time, the police conducted investigations including inquiries around the scene and analysis of closed-circuit television (CCTV), but could not identify a suspect. DNA samples were found under the victim Ms. B’s fingernails, but since male and female DNA were mixed, the technology at the time could not identify the suspect, and the case remained unsolved.

However, the National Forensic Service introduced technology to amplify and detect trace amounts of genetic material, providing a breakthrough for solving the case. In 2019, the Ulsan Police Agency’s special task force for important unsolved cases requested a re-examination of the DNA, and the National Forensic Service succeeded in isolating only the male DNA.

Subsequently, it was confirmed that the same genetic profile was registered in the criminal database, identifying Mr. A as the owner of the DNA in this case. Mr. A had previously been sentenced to two years in prison and served time for indiscriminate assault on a landlady over a tea payment dispute in Eonyang-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, in January 2013.

The police re-interviewed people around the area at that time and confirmed circumstances indicating Mr. A was at the crime scene. Testimonies revealed that Mr. A frequently visited nearby coffeehouses while moving between local inns before the incident but stopped visiting after the murder. The police tracked his location and arrested Mr. A at an inn in Yangsan, Gyeongnam, in December last year.

Mr. A initially denied the crime but eventually admitted to it after profiling and other investigations. He visited the coffeehouse for the first time on the day of the incident and proposed sexual relations to Ms. B, who refused, leading him to commit the crime. The court stated, "He killed a victim who was only kind to customers and committed an act that disregards human dignity. The bereaved families spent 12 years in sorrow without understanding why," but also considered "that it was not a premeditated crime and that he confessed to the charges, albeit late."