70s Man on Trial for Stalking Neighbor Woman Stabs Victim and Flees, Later Dies

Victim under police supervision as a safety measure
Currently in stable condition after surgery

A man in his 70s who was on trial for stalking a female neighbor living in the same apartment building was found dead after attacking the victim with a weapon and fleeing.

On the 13th, Yonhap News quoted the Sejong Nambu Police Station, reporting that at around 5:20 a.m. that day, Mr. A (79) stabbed Ms. B (61, female) multiple times with a weapon in the parking lot of a rental apartment in Dodam-dong, Sejong City, and then fled. After receiving a report from Ms. B, the police pursued Mr. A and found his body in a nearby stream's drainage ditch around 8 a.m., approximately two and a half hours after the incident occurred.

Mr. A had been charged in April with special threats and violations of the Stalking Punishment Act for threatening his neighbor Ms. B, who lives in the same apartment building, with a weapon in January and stalking her for over a month by sending multiple messages via mobile phone and social networking services (SNS). He had previously approached Ms. B several times before the crime and reportedly gave false statements to the police claiming that he was in a relationship with her.

The police registered Ms. B as a crime victim requiring safety measures starting in February and suggested that she relocate. However, since Ms. B did not wish to move, the police provided her with a smartwatch and managed her safety through the installation of closed-circuit television (CCTV) in the apartment hallways. Immediately after the attack, at around 5:23 a.m., Ms. B used the smartwatch provided by the police to report the incident, and the Sejong Police Agency issued a Code Zero, the highest level of dispatch alert, arriving at the scene within five minutes of the report. Ms. B was promptly taken to the hospital for surgery and is currently reported to be in stable condition without life-threatening injuries.

The court had also issued two protective orders for Ms. B. However, since the second protective order ended at the end of July, Mr. A was able to approach Ms. B without any difficulty at the time of the crime. A police official told Yonhap News, "It has been confirmed that Mr. A had not caused any major problems recently," adding, "The autopsy results suggest that he took his own life, but a detailed cause of death will be confirmed through a postmortem examination."