Guro ‘Mummified Body’ Was That of an Undocumented Chinese National ... Man Who Dumped It Was the Landlord

[Financial News] A court rejected arrest warrants for two men, one in his 60s and the other in his 80s, accused of dumping a “mummified body” in a pile of garbage near a residential area in Guro-gu, Seoul.
At around 10:30 a.m. on the 29th, Seoul Southern District Court Judge Kim Ji-hyun, who handles warrant cases, held pre-arrest questioning of A, a man in his 60s suspected of abandoning a body, and B, a man in his 80s suspected of instigating the abandonment. The judge then rejected the requests for arrest warrants.
The court said, “Considering the circumstances and details of the alleged crime established by the evidence collected so far, as well as the fact that the suspects have stable residences, it is difficult to conclude that they are at risk of fleeing or destroying evidence.” It added, “It is also difficult to find grounds for detention, or that detention is necessary and justified.”
The court also took into account that B, who is in his 80s, has a stable residence and is elderly; that A, who is in his 60s, admitted his wrongdoing and showed remorse; and that neither has a criminal record for an offense punishable by more than a fine. The two were found to have known each other through a previous tenant-landlord relationship. A has since moved elsewhere but reportedly used to help B with his work and looked up to him like a father.
Earlier, police received a report at around 11 a.m. on the 27th that a body had been found in a residential alley in Guro-gu, and arrested the two men later that afternoon. A district-office worker collecting garbage at the time found the body wrapped in plastic and newspapers, among other things, and reported it.
Investigators determined that the two had dumped the body on the 22nd. They reportedly admitted during police questioning that they had disposed of the body, but claimed they had not known at the time that it was a body.
B reportedly told investigators that he had found an object that looked like a doll and merely instructed someone to throw it away, saying he did not know it was a body. A reportedly said that he suspected the object might be a body while disposing of it, but did so on B’s instructions.
Police reportedly identified the deceased as a Chinese national residing in the country illegally. The deceased is believed to have lived with his wife in a multi-unit building belonging to B. Police are also looking into the possibility that the wife fled for fear that reporting her husband’s death would expose her own illegal immigration status.
The exact cause of death has not yet been determined. The National Forensic Service (NFS), which performed an autopsy on the body, gave an oral opinion that “it is difficult to determine the cause and date of death due to decomposition and other factors.” The final autopsy results are expected later.
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