"Planned abnormal‐motive crime" – Prosecution indicts and detains Kim So-young in the 'Gangbuk motel serial killings' case

[Financial News] Kim So-young, 20, who is accused of killing two men in succession by giving them drug-laced drinks at motels in the Gangbuk district of Seoul, has been sent to trial while under detention.
According to the legal community on the 10th, the Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office, led by Chief Prosecutor Kim Garam of the Criminal Division 2 at the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors’ Office, announced that it has indicted and detained Kim on charges of murder, aggravated assault, and violating the Narcotics Control Act.
Kim was referred to prosecutors and taken into custody on March 19 on suspicion of murder, aggravated assault, and violating the Narcotics Control Act. She is accused of handing drinks containing benzodiazepine-class psychotropic drugs to three men in their 20s between mid-December last year and March 9 this year, causing them to lose consciousness or die. Two of the victims died, while one suffered toxic encephalopathy but recovered after receiving treatment.
Prosecutors have characterized Kim's offenses as crimes with an abnormal motive. According to the prosecution, family conflict prevented her from developing normal emotional and social functioning, and she became strongly self-centered. The investigation found that she used men to satisfy her own consumption desires and financial needs, and resorted to drugs to easily escape conflicts or overpower the men, ultimately killing them.
Prosecutors also view the case as a planned crime. They say Kim feigned post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition she does not actually suffer from, in order to obtain prescriptions for sleeping pills, which she then ground into powder and mixed into hangover-relief drinks in preparation for the crimes. The prosecution further noted that she checked via ChatGPT that an overdose of such medication could be fatal, and cited this as evidence of premeditation.
Prosecutors added that Kim displayed cruelty, pointing out that she nearly doubled the dosage of the drug in subsequent offenses even after confirming that an earlier victim had fallen into a coma. It is also known that she obtained the medication in this way because she needed psychiatric treatment records to pursue a separate criminal complaint.
After two additional men were identified as suspected victims, police expanded the scope of their investigation and are continuing their inquiries. Even if there is no physical evidence, they plan to refer additional charges to prosecutors if the allegations are supported by circumstantial evidence and witness statements.
On April 4, the Seoul Gangbuk Police Station announced that the results of a psychopathy diagnostic test, the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R), showed that Kim "meets the criteria for a psychopath." In South Korea, a score above 25 is generally classified as psychopathic, and Kim scored 25.
Earlier, on April 9, the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office, based on the deliberations of the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors’ Office Personal Information Disclosure Deliberation Committee, decided to disclose Kim's personal information — including her mugshot, name, and age — for 30 days in the "public notice" section of its website.
A prosecution official stated, "We plan to respond strictly to serious crimes with abnormal motives that target unspecified members of the public."
jyseo@fnnews.com Seo Ji-yoon Reporter