Mother sentenced to 8 years for leaving daughter she had with her lover to die in a car with the engine off and windows open in midwinter

[Financial News] A woman in her 40s has been handed a lengthy prison sentence for leaving a child she had with her lover in a car in the dead of winter, where the child died.
According to legal sources on the 10th, the Criminal Division 1 of the Tongyeong Branch of the Changwon District Court, presided over by Judge Park Byeong-min, sentenced A (47), who was tried on a murder charge, to eight years in prison that day.
According to the indictment, A gave birth to a girl on January 13, 2016. Two days later, on January 15, from 5:15 p.m. to 6:45 p.m., she parked her car on the shoulder of a road in Donghae-myeon, Goseong County, South Gyeongsang Province, and left her newborn daughter unattended in the passenger seat, where she died. A was indicted while in custody on charges of causing the girl’s death.
Investigators found that A had turned off the car’s engine and left the windows open. The temperature in the area was just 5.73 degrees, and the girl, a premature infant weighing 2.16 kg, died after succumbing to hypothermia.
A later told investigators that she had buried the body, but changed her account and said she had dumped it in the sea off Goseong County. The body was never found.
During the trial, A admitted that she had left the girl alone in the car, leading to her death, but argued that she had not intended to kill her.
She also claimed that she had left the girl behind and gone for a walk, smoking as she did so, while thinking about how to tell her husband and family about the birth. She said she had left the car door slightly open because she was concerned the girl might suffocate, but the court rejected her claims.
The court noted, “She did not tell those around her that she was pregnant, and although the hospital said at the time of the birth that follow-up monitoring was necessary, she was discharged. Anyone could easily recognize that leaving a two-day-old infant unattended at the time of the crime could lead to the child’s death.”
The court continued, “Even after confirming the girl’s death, she neither took emergency measures nor asked anyone nearby for help, and she disposed of the body in the sea in a plastic bag.” It ruled, “In light of these facts, it is established that she had intent, at least in the form of accepting the possibility, to kill the child.”
The court explained its sentencing decision, saying, “The defendant’s conduct was utterly unlike that of a mother who had witnessed her child’s death, and is highly deserving of social condemnation.” It added, “However, the crime occurred before the 2023 amendment to the Criminal Act abolished infanticide, which carried a lower sentence than murder, so we must also take into account the level of punishment under the law at the time.”
The investigation into A began after a local government requested it, having grown suspicious during a comprehensive review of temporary identification numbers for newborns when it found, among other things, no signs that the deceased girl was alive.
In June last year, prosecutors who took over the case while A was not in custody conducted further investigations and uncovered details including the causal link between A’s actions and the girl’s death, as well as her motive. They then indicted her while she was in custody.
A reportedly became pregnant while continuing her relationship with her lover, at a time when she and her husband were estranged, and believed the child was likely her lover’s.
Investigators found that, fearing these facts would come to light, she committed the crime on the day she was discharged from the hospital after giving birth.
A could initially also have been charged with abandoning the girl’s body, but the statute of limitations had expired. The offense of violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Child Abuse Crimes was difficult to apply because the law was introduced in 2021, after the crime. She was therefore charged only with murder.
A is now divorced from her husband. Her lover reportedly became unreachable around the time of A’s pregnancy and childbirth.
[email protected] Ahn Ga-eul Reporter