Police additionally confirmed that Kim So-young, 20, the suspect in the "Seoul Gangbuk motel serial killings," carried out similar crimes against three Namsung.
An official at the Korean National Police Agency National Office of Investigation (NOI) said at a regular press briefing on the 16th that three more victims who drank a drug-laced beverage handed over by Kim So-young were identified, and Kim was additionally booked on charges of aggravated injury.
The three victims were found to have met Kim So-young in Seocho District and Gangbuk District, among other places, between October last year and January this year and to have drunk a beverage containing a benzodiazepine-class drug.
A National Forensic Service analysis detected the same components, including benzodiazepines that Kim So-young was found to have put into the beverage, in the body of one victim.
For one of the other two, police are waiting for a National Forensic Service reply, and for the remaining one, the same components were not detected, which police presume is because time has passed since the crime.
Police said they did not disclose Kim So-young's personal information in the early stage of the investigation because there was not enough evidence to prove intent to kill.
An official at the National Office of Investigation (NOI) said, "The suspect was denying the charges, and with only 10 days of detention for investigation, it was difficult to determine that all the requirements under the Act on the Disclosure of Information on Investigations into Serious Crimes had been met."
Regarding disclosure of personal information, police said they will actively assess the legal requirements going forward and strengthen frontline case guides and on-site staff training.
Kim So-young was indicted and detained on the 10th on charges of handing beverages containing benzodiazepine-class drugs to three Namsung in their 20s from mid-December last year to on the 9th of last month, causing them to lose consciousness or die. Kim So-young's first trial is scheduled for Apr. 9 at 3:30 p.m. at the Seoul Northern District Court.