Prosecutors Demand 30-Year Prison Sentence for Man in His 50s Who Buried His Cohabitant's Body in Secret for 16 Years After Murder

The prosecution has demanded a 30-year prison sentence for a man in his 50s who killed his cohabiting partner and concealed the body in a suitcase, burying it in cement for 16 years.

At the sentencing hearing held at the Tongyeong Branch of Changwon District Court in Gyeongnam, presided over by Chief Judge Kim Young-seok of Criminal Division 1, the prosecution requested the court to sentence Mr. A, in his 50s, who was charged with murder and other offenses.

Gyeongnam Changwon District Prosecutors' Office Tongyeong Branch. Photo by Se-ryeong Lee

According to the prosecution, Mr. A was tried on charges of killing his cohabiting partner Ms. B at a multi-family house in Geoje City around October 10, 2008, and hiding the body.

He became enraged after an argument over a relationship issue with Ms. B, who was in her 30s at the time, and fatally struck her head and face with a blunt object before placing the body in a suitcase.

Mr. A moved the suitcase containing the body to the veranda, stacked bricks around it, poured about 10 cm thick cement over it, and hardened it to disguise it as a normal part of the house structure.

He lived in the house where the crime was committed for eight years until his arrest in 2016 on drug charges.

A travel suitcase containing a corpse was found inside a concrete structure on the veranda of a residential area in Geoje-si, Gyeongnam. Photo by Gyeongnam Police Agency

The crime was uncovered 16 years later when a worker, called by the homeowner for leak repairs around August this year, broke the concrete structure on the veranda and discovered the hidden suitcase.

The prosecution stated, “Although Mr. A has confessed to the charges, please consider that he poured cement over the body, making it difficult to uncover the factual truth for 16 years.”

Mr. A, who admitted all the prosecution’s allegations at the first trial, said in his final statement, “It feels like I have lived in a prison that was not a prison for 16 years,” and expressed deep remorse.

The sentencing hearing for this case is scheduled to be held at around 9:50 a.m. on the 23rd.