Man in his 20s detained for killing a man in his 70s he had never met in Gangbuk; court cites risk of evidence destruction and flight

[Financial News] A man in his 20s arrested on suspicion of killing a man in his 70s whom he had never met in Seoul’s Gangbuk-gu has been placed in custody.
According to legal sources on the 7th, Park Sa-rang, a presiding judge overseeing warrant applications at the Seoul Northern District Court, issued a warrant for the detention of Mr. Oh, who is suspected of murder, citing concerns that he might destroy evidence or flee.
Seoul’s Gangbuk Police Station earlier said that Mr. Oh had given up on attending the pre-detention questioning scheduled for 10:30 a.m. that day. The court conducted a substantive review of the detention warrant application based solely on written materials, including the investigation records, without questioning the suspect. Under the Rules of Criminal Procedure, if a suspect refuses to attend on the scheduled questioning date, a judge may proceed with the examination in the suspect’s absence.
Mr. Oh is suspected of killing A, a man in his 70s, at a home in Beon-dong, Gangbuk-gu, on the 3rd.
On the 4th, police received a report from an acquaintance who said they could not reach A. At around 7 p.m. that day, officers found A dead at his home. Police later identified Mr. Oh as a suspect based on CCTV footage and other evidence and arrested him at around 1 a.m. on the 5th.
Mr. Oh reportedly told police that he had never met A and, in effect, that he had committed the crime after going to confront him over a shoulder bump on the street.
However, after analyzing CCTV footage along the route A took home from a bar in Suyu-dong, Gangbuk-gu, to his home in Beon-dong on the 3rd, police determined that the footage showed no instance of A bumping shoulders with anyone else.
Police, who applied for a detention warrant the previous day, are investigating the motive and circumstances of the crime while conducting a psychopathy assessment and other tests, without ruling out the possibility that Mr. Oh’s account was untrue.
[email protected] Seo Ji-yoon Reporter