A serving Army officer has admitted to murdering a female colleague and disposing of her dismembered body in the Bukhan River in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province. The incident, which took place on Monday, was confirmed by the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency, which is overseeing the investigation.
The accused, a senior officer in his late 30s, was previously stationed at the Cyber Operations Command in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, before being transferred to a unit in Seoul’s Songpa District last month. He was reportedly set to be promoted to lieutenant colonel.
The victim, a civilian worker, was 33 years old. She had been employed at the Cyber Operations Command alongside the officer until last month. Though they were said to have had a close working relationship, recent tensions between them escalated. On October 25, a heated argument prompted the officer to lash out, strangling the victim in his car at the unit’s parking lot around 3 p.m.
After the murder, the officer concealed the body under some clothes and returned to his duties. Later that evening, around 9 p.m., he drove to a nearby construction site due for demolition, where he dismembered the victim’s body. The officer then placed the body parts into plastic bags, weighed them down with rocks, and discarded them into the Bukhan River in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province.
The officer’s familiarity with the area played a role in his choice of location, as he had worked there more than a decade ago. It wasn’t until Saturday that the crime began to surface when a local resident discovered part of the remains in the river. The authorities swiftly launched an investigation, confirming the victim’s identity through forensic analysis of the body and mobile phone records.
After a three-day search, authorities located all of the victim’s body parts on Monday, following an extensive operation involving 200 officers, 21 divers, 10 boats, eight search dogs, and two drones. The remains were recovered from the Bukhan River in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, where the officer had discarded them.
The police tracked the officer using surveillance footage, family interviews, and phone data, leading to his arrest on Sunday in Gangnam District, Seoul. The suspect did not resist and immediately confessed to the crime. Authorities are now working to secure an arrest warrant for charges of murder, damage, and concealment of the body.
