A former police officer accused of killing a wife amid a divorce suit was under a restraining order barring contact with her at the time of the disappearance, it emerged. Although the possibility of a violent crime could have been anticipated from when the suspect went missing, it took about 30 hours to identify the crime, prompting criticism that the police response was inadequate.
According to police and others on the 25th, the family of A, a man in his 50s, reported to the Jungnang Police Station in Seoul at about 2 p.m. on the 23rd that A had gone missing. A was said to have left a note hinting at an extreme choice before leaving home.
Police traced A's movements to a billiards hall in Guri, Gyeonggi, that A frequented, and about five hours after receiving the report, requested assistance for a search from the Guri Police Station. Police did not consider at all the possibility that A might attack B, a woman in her 50s who is his wife and the victim.
In the course of the investigation, it was found that A had been in conflict with B over domestic violence issues and, from March until next August, was under a court order barring him from approaching B's residence in Seogwipo, Jeju.
After belatedly grasping this fact, the Guri Police Station on the morning of the 24th asked the Seogwipo Police Station to confirm B's safety. Officers went to B's home at about 8:22 a.m. the same day, rang the bell, and sounded a siren, but withdrew from the scene when there was no sign of anyone.
Police did not return to B's home until about 7 p.m., roughly 11 hours later. Inside, B was found collapsed and bleeding and was already dead. This was about 30 hours after A's disappearance was reported.
Only then did police reclassify the missing-person case as a violent crime and begin tracking A, arresting him in Guri at about 12:30 a.m. on the 25th. Police estimate the time of the crime to be about 3 a.m. on the 23rd, earlier than the missing-person report. Given that A was subject to a restraining order regarding the victim, critics say the criminal link should have been identified sooner.
A previously worked as a police officer in Jeju for about a year before retiring, and was found to have later moved to Seoul and lived separately from B. Police believe conflicts that built up during the divorce proceedings led to the crime, and plan to transfer A to Jeju to investigate the details.