A True Crime Fan Obsessed With Murder Killed a College Tutor ‘To See What It Was Like for Real.’ Now, She'll Never Walk Free Again.
Nov. 27 2023, Published 3:56 p.m. ET
A woman in South Korea who was obsessed with true crime books and TV shows was sentenced to life behind bars after she came up with a plan to commit murder “out of curiosity,” according to authorities.
On May 31, the Busan police said 23-year-old Jung Yoo-jung confessed to the killing, The Chosun Ilbo reported.
Officials said Jung “feels sorry for what she did” and authorities were “conducting tests to see if she is a psychopath.”
According to The Chosun Ilbo, “Jung was found to have premeditated the crime driven by a desire to kill someone after she became obsessed with murder from TV programs and books.”
In the months leading up to the attack, investigators claimed Jung checked out library books on crime and watched true crime TV shows. She also searched online for how to hide a body.
Jung used an app designed to connect parents with school tutors to find her victim, police said. She posed as the mother of a ninth-grader who needed help learning English.
She then arranged to send “her daughter” to the home of the victim, identified as a female college student and freelance tutor in her 20s, for a consultation, The Chosun Ilbo reported.
Jung bought a school uniform and went to the tutor’s house in Busan herself on May 26, JoongAng Daily reported. Posing as a school student, Jung entered the victim’s home and stabbed her to death with a knife, police said.
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After killing the tutor, Jung went to a store and bought bleach and trash bags. She then returned to the victim’s house and dismembered the body, authorities said.
After calling for a taxi, Jung is accused of taking some of the victim’s body parts in a suitcase to a remote woodland area by the Nakdong River. However, a suspicious taxi driver contacted police after Jung went into the bushes with the suitcase after midnight, according to officials.
Jung attempted to make it appear like the victim disappeared by keeping the victim’s mobile phone, ID card and wallet, police said, adding she was trying to “commit a perfect crime.”
Detectives said they questioned Jung and she initially claimed she accidentally killed the victim in an argument. They said she later confessed after investigators found inconsistencies in her story and her family encouraged her to come clean.
Police said they also found more remains of the victim’s body at Jung’s house.
On Nov. 24, Yoo-jung was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder, desecration and abandonment of a corpse, the BBC reported. She must also wear a tracking device for 30 years.
During the sentencing, the judge said Yoo-jung murdered the victim "despite not knowing her beforehand" and "for her own perverse reasons," the BBC reported. The judge added that the crime "incited a general distrust" in the South Korean community.
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