A South Korean man in his 50s has been arrested after confessing to murdering his girlfriend 16 years ago and entombing her body on his balcony under a layer of cement, according to police.
The man was charged with murdering the woman in October 2008 during an argument, as reported by the Gyeongnam Provincial Police and Geoje Police Station. He allegedly fatally struck the woman with a blunt object and then placed her body in a large travel bag. The body was subsequently hidden on his balcony by stacking bricks and pouring a 10cm layer of cement over it.
The woman was not reported missing until three years later, as she had no contact with her family. During a 2011 missing person inquiry, the man told police they had "broken up," and the case remained unsolved due to insufficient evidence.
A police official revealed that the body was not discovered earlier because it had been fitted into the small balcony space, and the room had been virtually empty since 2016. That year, the perpetrator was arrested for drug use, and the landlord stated that the property was used for storage space. The body was found last month after a worker searching for water leaks discovered the travel bag.
Upon inspection, police found the woman's body preserved to some extent. "The body hadn't completely decomposed to bones, allowing us to identify her using fingerprints," police said. The man was brought in for questioning and eventually confessed to the murder. A police official from Gyeongnam Provincial Police stated that the investigation and questioning are nearly complete, and the man will be "sent to prosecution soon."
