Korean woman, boyfriend arrested for drowning murder of her husband for life insurance payout

April 19, 2022

A South Korean woman and her male accomplice, who is reportedly her extra-marital paramour, were arrested on Saturday for the murder of the woman’s husband in 2019.

Incheon Metropolitan Police arrested Lee Eun-hae, 31, and Cho Hyeon-soo, 30, at a residential building in South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province on Saturday. The two have been accused of being involved in an incident widely referred to online as the “Gapyeong valley murder case.”

With the help of Cho, Lee reportedly convinced her husband, who could not swim, to jump off a cliff in Gapyeong County, around 37 miles east of Seoul, on June 30, 2019. The suspects then left Lee’s husband to drown in the river below.

Investigators suspect the crime was motivated by a life insurance payout worth 800 million won (approximately $644,000).

Lee’s father helped authorities find the couple by giving them their apartment number. Their arrest came 17 days after the Incheon Metropolitan Police posted a wanted notice against them in March.

“We found their hideout by investigating the residents around them,” authorities said. “While there were only the two of them inside the room, we plan to find out if they have received help from others.”

A local court issued the couple’s formal arrest warrants on Tuesday, a day after prosecutors at the Incheon District Prosecutors Office filed for court warrants against them on murder by nonfeasance, attempted murder and attempted insurance fraud charges.

Lee and Cho were reportedly on the run since late last year. The authorities started searching for them after they failed to undergo a second round of questioning by prosecutors on Dec. 14, 2021. The couple was included in a wanted list late last month, and their identities were shared with the public.

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In one of the postcards found in Lee’s previous apartment in Incheon, the woman referred to herself as Cho’s “master.” Authorities also discovered through another postcard that Lee and Cho met in March 2019 and were most likely having an affair while Lee’s husband was still alive.

Lee and Cho were also accused by prosecutors of poisoning the husband’s food with pufferfish toxin in February of 2019 and trying to drown him in May of that year.

Shortly after Lee and Cho’s wanted posters were released, several social media users posted screenshots from an episode of “Sunday Sunday Night – Love House” that aired on MBC in March 2002, claiming the girl from the episode and Lee are the same person.

Featured Image via Channel A News (Korea)

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