Tag: murder

This has always been a strange murder suicide case and the speculation from this reporter a court has decided is not slander:

A Seoul appellate court acquitted a reporter on Friday of falsely claiming that the younger brother of President Park Geun-hye may have been behind the murder of his nephew.

In 2013, a lower court had cleared Joo Jin-woo, a reporter of the monthly news magazine Sisa IN, of charges that he spread false information about Park Ji-man in an article published in December 2012.

At the height of President Park’s presidential campaign, Joo’s article revisited a 2011 case in which the body of Park’s nephew was found on a hiking trail near Mount Bukhan in northern Seoul. Just three kilometers from the scene, another one of her nephews was found hanging from a tree.

Police concluded that one of the nephews had murdered the other after getting into a financial dispute, and then hung himself.

But Joo alleged that Park Ji-man may have ordered the murder, citing a legal dispute between Ji-man and his brother-in-law, who is the father of the two nephews.

Joo also faced charges that he slandered the president’s late father, former President Park Chung-hee, during a book event in 2010.

Upholding a lower court ruling, the Seoul High Court said Joo was not guilty of spreading false information since he’d tried his best to uncover the truth behind the murder.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

If you are a woman living in Suwon you might want to be a little extra careful, this is a lot women missing in just two years:

Over the past two years, 159 women aged 18 or older have been reported missing in Suwon, the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency said Thursday.

Suwon is the scene of last month’s gruesome “torso murder” in Paldal-gu, in which a Korean-Chinese illegal alien Park Chun-bong killed his Korean-Chinese ex-girlfriend and discarded her body parts in four separate places. Ten women, five each in 2012 and 2013 living in Paldal-gu were reported missing, police said.

In 2012, another Korean-Chinese, Oh Won-choon, kidnapped and killed a 23-year-old woman and cut the body into more than 300 pieces. Oh was jailed for life last year.

Police plan to expand their investigations based on a possible link between the missing women and Park, who was arrested on Dec. 15.

Police said they have designated some districts in Suwon where there are large foreign communities as “vulnerable areas,” and will increase patrols and security measure. [Korea Times]

Park Chun-bong, who has admitted to killing a woman and brutally butchering her body in Suwon, south of Seoul, is flanked by police officers as he leaves the Suwon Western Police Station on Dec. 14, 2014, to attend a hearing for his arrest warrant. (Yonhap)

An Army soldier, identified only as Sgt. Lim, who was arrested on charges of killing five fellow soldiers in a shooting rampage in June, leaves a military court in Wonju, Gangwon Province, on Oct. 23, 2014, after trial. Lim claimed he committed the rampage after being ostracized for years. (Yonhap)

I wonder how many of the 10 Koreans killed in the Philippines this year had organized crime connections?:

The Foreign Ministry said Friday that a man whose body was found in the Philippines in July has been positively identified as Korean. The latest discovery raises the number of Koreans killed in the Philippines this year alone to 10.

A ministry official said, “The Philippine police asked the Korean Embassy to identify the body discovered on the outskirts of Manila in late July. After analyzing the fingerprints, the body was determined to be that of a 45-year-old Korean surnamed Lee.”

The body was discovered in a plastic container and bore a gunshot wound to the neck. It appears Lee was murdered and his body was dumped. Philippine police were reportedly tipped off that Lee had connections to narcotics smugglers.  [Chosun Ilbo]

Six soldiers charged with murder: Six soldiers accused of killing a junior comrade surnamed Yoon at their fift… http://t.co/Ap6Dko4hE3

— Hankyoreh Newspaper (@HankyorehNews) September 17, 2014

Former USFK soldier and convicted murderer Kenneth Markle who was just recently released from ROK prison, has apparently spoken out over at Lost Nomad proclaiming his innocence in the 1992 murder of Korean prostitute Kum E. Yoon. This murder is the most brutal as well as the most publicly known murder by a US servicemember in Korea and has long been used by anti-US groups to influence public opinion against USFK in Korea.

I can remember a few years back being in charge of a force protection detail at Camp Red Cloud when my soldiers working the front gate called me to come to the gate. I went to the gate and the typical anti-US loons were out there with signs with the murdered body of Ms. Yoon on it as well as the crushed bodies of the two girls killed in the 2002 armored vehicle accident. That was the first time I had ever seen pictures of the brutal murder, that even years after it happened are still sickenly used for political reasons.

Markle says he didn’t do it and we would be surprised if we read the court transcripts. Well then he should scan post them on a webpage and let us with interest in the case read them. He is the one convicted for the murder and thus the burden of proof is on him to prove he is innocent.

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Note: An updated posting about this case can be read at the below link:

• GI Flashbacks: The 1992 Private Kenneth Markle Murder Case

I can remember the 2001 St. Patrick’s Day night that the American student Jamie Penich was murdered in Itaewon very clearly because I was out on the town that night and actually visited the bar that Penich was last at, though not at the same time so I never saw her. The murder definitely sent waves through the USFK community because it was suspected that a USFK servicemember was the person responsible for the murder. Many servicemembers were questioned about what they saw in Itaewon that night but no arrests were ever made.

This case took so many twists and turns that it could be made into a movie, but ultimately Penich’s friend was the only person charged with the murder which included allegations of lesbianism and a confession from the suspected killer to US authorities. However, the case continued to take more twists and turns as the suspected murderer withdrew her confession during the Korean court trial and was found innocent and now that not guilty verdict has been upheld:

The Supreme Court upheld yesterday a lower court ruling acquitting an American student on charges of murdering another U.S. student in Korea in 2001. The court said there was insufficient evidence to convict Kenzi Snider, 24, of killing Jamie Lynn Penich. Ms. Snider had been accused of beating Ms. Penich to death in a motel in Itaewon in March 2001.

The court said it did not accept Ms. Snider’s confession to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation because it was later retracted. After questioning in Korea, Ms. Snider was questioned by the F.B.I. in the United States and confessed to the murder. Extradited to Korea in 2002, Ms. Snider disavowed her confession at her trial here. The court said evidence from another country’s authorities is only admissible if the suspect confirms it to a court here.

I highly recommend that everyone read this Court TV report on the murder because the twists and turns this case takes is truly amazing, while the murderer is still at large. I wonder if the authorities could have solved this murder if they didn’t just focus on the GI murderer stereotype from the beginning of this case like they did? There will probably never be any justice for Jamie Penich’s family, but read the report to draw your own conclusions.

Becareful who you pick up on at a nightclub is the moral of this story:

A 29-year-old woman was sentenced to life imprisonment for injuring her husband, ex-husband and family members to receive insurance money, and fatally burning others.

The Seoul Central District Court yesterday handed down a life imprisonment sentence to a woman, identified as Uhm, who was arrested on 10 counts of charges including murder and arson.

A panel of judges said in a ruling statement that Uhm had shown no sign of regret for her cruel acts against her two husbands, family members and others.

Uhm stabbed her former husband, identified as Lee, in the eyes after feeding him sleeping pills in a quarrel over his low wages in May, 2001.

She also abused her ex-husband by pouring hot oil on Lee’s face and received insurance money for his injuries by disguising it as an accident.

She pocketed a total of 280 million won before her ex-husband died of complications.

It only gets better, check this out:

However, she continued to commit further miserable crimes against her current husband, identified as Lim, who she met in a nightclub right after her former husband’s death.

Lim also went blind after being stabbed with a sharp instrument and burned by Uhm, who pocketed about 38 million won in insurance money.

She also blinded her mother, identified as Kim, 52, and brother, 29, in July and November 2003, respectively, five months after her second husband died of burns.

Uhm also set fire to her sister’s house, for fear that her wrongdoing in pocketing money from the sale of her family’s apartment in January this year might be revealed.

Unbelievable. At least she got a life sentence.