Lee Chun-jae's Ex-wife Appears on SBS Documentary
"I Was Blamed by My Family for Meeting Lee Chun-jae"
The ex-wife of Lee Chun-jae (62), the perpetrator of the 'Hwaseong serial murders,' has spoken out about her feelings for the first time in 31 years.
Lee's ex-wife, Ms. Lee, appeared on the SBS documentary 'Time of the Monster' aired on November 2, stating, "My family blames me, saying, 'Our family fell apart because you met that man.' I also think I would have lived a happy life if I had never met him. My life was ruined because of one person. It was my fault for meeting someone like that."
Lee Chun-jae is the real culprit behind the 'Hwaseong serial murders,' which took place in the Hwaseong area of Gyeonggi Province from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. At the time, the police failed to apprehend the perpetrator, leaving the case unsolved for many years. However, in 2019, DNA analysis identified Lee Chun-jae as the perpetrator of the Hwaseong serial murders.
On November 2, 2020, during the ninth retrial hearing for the eighth Hwaseong case, Lee Chun-jae testified that he was the real culprit behind 14 serial murder cases that occurred in the Hwaseong and Cheongju areas during the 1980s.
Ms. Lee recounted their first meeting, explaining that while she was working at a construction company, Lee Chun-jae, who was an employee of a subcontractor, approached her first. She said, "He was always punctual and meticulous. I thought he had gentle hands and didn't seem to have any bad qualities." She added that she did not know he had just been released from prison when they met.
The two married in April 1992, one year after the tenth Hwaseong serial murder case occurred in April 1991. Upon discovering her pregnancy, Ms. Lee considered going to a facility for single mothers or having an abortion, but Lee Chun-jae insisted, "No," and took her to his house in Hwaseong.
Ms. Lee stated that her married life was far from smooth. She said, "(Lee Chun-jae) would take out his anger on me whenever his routine was disrupted or things didn't go his way. There were moments when his eyes would suddenly change. Even now, it gives me chills. When that happened, I knew never to provoke him."
Lee Chun-jae not only abused his wife but also repeatedly assaulted their two-year-old son. In its ruling, the court described Lee Chun-jae as "introverted, but once angered, so uncontrollable that even his parents could not stop him." Ms. Lee testified, "He would hit me for no reason, and one time, when our child woke up from sleep, he hit him so hard that the baby rolled across the floor. When I tried to resist, I was punched directly in the face."
Eventually, in December 1993, Ms. Lee left home. Lee Chun-jae threatened her over the phone, saying, "You should know that I am plotting something terrifying."
Ms. Lee also spoke about the case in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province in 1994, in which her younger sister was raped and murdered by Lee Chun-jae. He called his sister-in-law (then 21 years old) to his house under the pretense of giving her a toaster and tried to make her drink a beverage laced with sleeping pills that he had prepared in advance.
However, when his sister-in-law said she had promised to go to church with a friend and tried to leave, he raped her. Afterwards, he struck her with a blunt object, killed her, and wrapped her body in a black plastic bag, clothes, and stockings before disposing of it.
Kim Sigun, the former detective who investigated the case at the time, said, "If it weren't for the victim's bloodstains found on the bathroom doorknob and under the linoleum by the washing machine, it would have been difficult to uncover Lee Chun-jae's crime." Kim added, "The day after the crime, Lee Chun-jae visited his father-in-law and asked, 'Is there anything I can help with?' To kill his daughter and then act that way toward her father-Lee Chun-jae was truly shameless."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
