An autopsy of the body of a Korean college student, a person surnamed Park (22), who died after being tortured at a Cambodian crime compound, began on Oct. 20 (local time).
Korean police and Cambodian investigators began the autopsy that morning inside Tuktla Temple in Sen Sok in central Phnom Penh. Seven people, including a forensic pathologist from the National Forensic Service (NFS) and the lead police investigator, arrived at the temple at about 9:25 a.m. and headed to the mortuary with autopsy equipment. They departed the previous day and entered Cambodia.
Korean and Cambodian investigators plan to confirm Park's cause of death and whether any organs were removed through a joint autopsy that day. Once the autopsy is complete, the body will be cremated immediately at Tuktla Temple. The remains will then be repatriated to Korea.
Park departed for Cambodia on July 17 under the direction of a ring that included a person surnamed Hong (in their 20s, indicted and detained), a broker who arranged bank accounts under borrowed names. Three weeks later, on Aug. 8, Park was found dead in a car near Bokor Mountain in Kampot Province. Hong attended the same university as Park. Park's body has been kept in the mortuary at this temple for more than two months since August.
When local police found Park's body, severe signs of torture, including bruises and wounds, were found all over. Some of those who said they saw Park in Cambodia said Park died while being transported to a hospital.
Three Chinese nationals charged with murder, fraud, and other offenses related to Park were indicted and detained by a Cambodian court on Oct. 10. Local police are pursuing two others, including an ethnic Korean Chinese (Joseonjok), who allegedly led the crime.