Father of accused killer of Gwangju high school girl destroyed key evidence, authorities say

The father of the man accused of killing a teenage girl in Gwangju allegedly destroyed key evidence suggesting that the murder was sexually motivated. However, the father — a police official — was not charged with destroying evidence as the Criminal Act exempts family members from such charges.

During their supplementary investigation, authorities discovered that several items, including life-size sex dolls and a mobile phone, had disappeared from the one-room apartment of the suspect — identified as Jang Yun-gi — after he was taken into custody, the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office said on Wednesday.

Jang is accused of fatally stabbing Lee Chae-won, a high school girl, in Gwangju at around 12:10 a.m. on May 5, as well as injuring a high school boy who attempted to help the victim.

Police believe the suspect was unacquainted with the victim.

Prosecutors found that the suspect’s father had disposed of several sex dolls and a mobile phone registered in his son’s name.

The sex dolls were considered key pieces of evidence supporting prosecutors’ conclusion that the suspect’s motive was sexual. Video recorded during a police search of the complex shows what appears to be knife damage to the neck and other parts of one of the dolls, prosecutors said.

Using search footage obtained by police and other evidence, prosecutors reconstructed the destroyed evidence. They then upgraded the charge from murder to murder committed in the course of rape or another sexual offense under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes.

The investigation found that the suspect’s father dismembered the sex dolls and disposed of the pieces in several different locations. 

However, prosecutors did not place the father under investigation on suspicion of destroying evidence.

While Article 155 of the Criminal Act criminalizes the destruction of evidence in another person’s criminal case, Paragraph 4 provides an exemption for family members who commit such acts on behalf of a relative.

Jang is also facing charges of unlawfully confining and sexually assaulting a co-worker and illegally filming a child while serving as a social service worker.

Prosecutors believe that Lee’s murder was committed with the intent to commit a sexual offense, based on the suspect’s past remarks about sexual crimes against women, his previous sexual offenses and the circumstances surrounding the attack.

At his first trial, however, Jang admitted most of the charges but did not address whether he had intended to commit rape.

BY PARK JONG-SUH [[email protected]]