‘Mother-in-law killing, wife abduction’: Kim Seong-woo transferred to the Public Prosecution Office

[Financial News] Kim Seong-woo (26), a social service agent suspected of killing his mother-in-law and kidnapping his wife, has been transferred to the Public Prosecution Office.
Police said on the 20th that Songpa Police Station had referred Kim Seong-woo that day to the Seoul Eastern District Public Prosecution Office on charges including violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes through retaliatory murder and retaliatory confinement, as well as special assault and violating the Act on the Punishment of Stalking Crimes.
Kim Seong-woo is suspected of stabbing and killing his mother-in-law, who was in her 50s, with a weapon at his in-laws’ home in Songpa-gu at around 5:35 a.m. on the 11th, as she tried to stop him from forcibly taking his wife, Ms. A, who was in her 20s.
Kim then threatened Ms. A with a weapon, put her in a car, took her to a wooded hillside in Yangyang County, Gangwon Province, and confined her there.
His mother-in-law was found at the scene and taken to a hospital in cardiac arrest, but died.
His wife, Ms. A, suffered abrasions but was rescued safely.
Kim Seong-woo and his wife, Ms. A, registered their marriage in February and separated in August.
In late August, Ms. A filed an application for divorce mediation with the court, then withdrew it and was pursuing a lawsuit to have the marriage declared invalid.
Police had been investigating with a focus on the possibility that the crime was premeditated, based on the fact that Kim Seong-woo had waited for around four hours near the scene while carrying a weapon.
Meanwhile, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency convened its Personal Information Disclosure Review Committee the previous afternoon and released Kim Seong-woo’s name, age and mugshot.
The committee determined that the seriousness of the harm and the brutality of the means used in the crime were established, and that there was sufficient evidence to prove the crime.   


[email protected] Lee Dong-hyeok Reporter