Police say a true crime aficionado obsessed with TV shows and books about murder has confessed to fatally stabbing and dismembering a woman “out of curiosity.”
According to The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s oldest daily newspaper, Jung Yoo-jung was arrested last week in the city of Busan and later indicted on a murder charge.
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Jung, 23, had allegedly posed as a mom seeking an English tutor for her ninth grade daughter. Two days before the murder, she made arrangements to send her daughter to the tutor’s home for a consultation.
Authorities say Jung showed up at the tutor’s house on May 26 for the consult wearing a school uniform she had purchased online. Police think the victim, whose identity is being withheld, probably thought Jung was her would-be student.
Police say Jung arrived at the home armed with a knife and stabbed the tutor as soon as she entered the door. Once the victim was dead, Jung allegedly dismembered her. She then used bleach and trash bags she had purchased at a nearby grocery store to dispose of the body by placing body parts in a suitcase.
Jung then changed into the victim’s clothing before exiting the home, police said, because the schoolgirl uniform was covered in blood.
Investigators say Jung attempted to make it look like the tutor simply disappeared by taking her ID, cell phone, and wallet.
Jung is believed to have then taken a taxi to a wooded area where she disposed of some of the body. Jung apparently aroused the taxi driver’s suspicions, because he alerted authorities, who proceeded to find the rest of the victim’s body at Jung’s home.
According to phone records, investigators said that in the months leading up to the killing, Jung allegedly searched for guidance on how to hide a corpse. Police say she also checked out multiple library books and watched true crime shows in order to learn how to kill a person.
Upon first being confronted by police, Jung said she killed the woman after they’d had an argument; but she quickly confessed.
“Jung also said she feels sorry for what she did,” a police spokesman said. “We are conducting tests to see if she is a psychopath.”
As she exited the the Busan Dongnae Police Precinct on Friday, Jung said, “I apologize to the victim and her family. I must have been out of my mind.”
