On 1 June 2013, Choi Sung-hoon (25), who sexually assaulted and murdered a female university student in his studio, was urgently arrested.
He took the victim with him in a taxi after chasing her out of a bar at dawn. He lied to the taxi driver that he was her lover.
The daughter who ‘took a taxi’ disappeared
A body was found in a reservoir in Gunchon-eup, Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, on the morning of 26 May 2013, the day after her disappearance. /Photo=News1
On 25 May 2013, Nam Mo-chee, 22, a female university student, went missing in Daegu. Nam had been drinking at a bar in Samdeok-dong, Jung-gu the previous evening. It was a long-awaited meeting with acquaintances who had previously worked part-time together. He left the bar at around 4am on the 25th. They watched him get into a taxi.
But he never came home. His mobile phone was also switched off. His mother, who had been waiting to hear from him, reported him missing to the Daegu Central Police Station at around 7pm on the 25th.
The next morning, a fisherman found a body in a reservoir in Gunchon-eup, Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. It was Nam, dead. He was wearing only an underwear top with his bottoms off, and his four upper teeth were broken. There were signs of strangulation on his neck and severe bruises on his face. An autopsy by the National Institute of Forensic Science and Investigation also revealed wounds that suggested she had been sexually assaulted.
The taxi driver who picked up Nam was immediately identified as a prime suspect. Police analysed closed-circuit (CC) TV footage from a highway tollgate and made an emergency arrest of the taxi driver at his apartment in Dalseo-gu at around 8 p.m. on the 31st, the sixth day of his disappearance, but it was difficult to find a suspect. There were no wounds on the taxi driver’s hands, suggesting a violent struggle during the murder of Nam. He had no criminal record and there were no signs of a murder inside the cab.
During the investigation, an important statement emerged. As Nam was being picked up, a man claimed to be Nam’s lover, stopped the taxi, got in, and turned around. The new suspect was Choi Sung-hoon.
Child sex offence two years ago…committed while on probation
Choi was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and three years of probation for forcibly molesting a woman under the age of 16 in Ulsan in January 2011. /Photo=Online Community Galmuri
On the day of Nam’s disappearance, police obtained CCTV footage that showed Choi approaching her at a club, following her in a taxi, and taking her to a motel.
He drank at another table in the same bar that day. He approached the victim’s group, who did not know him, and the staff kicked him out. After leaving the club, Choi saw the victim get into a taxi alone and followed him.
Choi was 170cm tall and weighed 56kg, with a rather dwarf build. On the day of his arrest, he entered the Daegu Central Police Station without saying anything when asked by reporters whether he admitted to the charges or how he felt. Even on the day of the field test, he kept his head down and said “I’m sorry” and “I didn’t mean to kill” in response to reporters’ questions.
When police questioned him with physical evidence, he admitted to the crime. At 5:30 a.m. on the morning of Nam’s disappearance, Choi found no vacancies at the motel and took him back to his single room, where he sexually assaulted and killed him. Later that afternoon, he rented a car and drove to a reservoir in Gyeongju, where he disposed of the body at night먹튀검증.
The police released Choi’s name, face, and other identifying information. “In order to ensure the public’s right to know and the right to protect their own life and physical safety, we have made a judgement that it is reasonable to disclose Choi’s face not only to the media but also to citizens,” a police official said at the time.
Sexual offences and attempted rape for being “on the verge of an explosion of attraction”
/Photo: Ji Hye Lee Design Reporter
However, he already had a history of sexual offences, as a user reported that he was registered on the sex offender information disclosure site ‘Sex Offender Alert’. It was revealed that in January 2011, when he was 23 years old, he was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and three years of probation for forcibly molesting a woman under the age of 16 in Ulsan.
In other words, he was on probation when he killed Nam. It was also later revealed that he had attempted to sexually assault another woman in her 20s at his home in February 2013, three months before this incident. The woman reported the incident to the police when Choi was publicised in the media.
Choi was working as a public service worker at a subway station in Daegu. No one at his workplace knew about his criminal record, and he even called in sick after the murder of the female university student.
Choi reportedly bragged to his acquaintances that “I’m an expert on women. On his social media (SNS), he wrote, “I haven’t seen a girl I didn’t take 10 times,” and “I’ve always had a lot of girls around me. But I never gave my heart to any of them,” and “I’m on the verge of exploding”.
“Isolate forever”…life sentence confirmed
In court, Choi was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court on charges including rape and murder and disposing of a corpse under the Sexual Violence Punishment Act. The prosecution had sought the death penalty, but the first instance court sentenced him to life imprisonment, which was upheld on appeal.
The first instance court ruled that “there is a high likelihood that he will commit more cruel and heinous crimes if his sentence is reduced and he is returned to society due to his unfavourable upbringing or signs of remorse,” and that “there is an urgent need to isolate him from society indefinitely.”
The appeals court upheld the original sentence, stating that “it is more appropriate to isolate him from society forever through life imprisonment rather than the death penalty, which deprives him of life itself, to prevent him from reoffending and to make him repent and reflect on his wrongdoing to the victims and bereaved families who lost their precious lives.”
Following the confirmation of his life sentence, he is currently being held at the North Gyeongsang Province Prison (formerly Cheongsong Prison).