Suspected killer of Chinese student in Gyeongsan refuses psychopathy test
Police say the suspect allegedly tried to cover up the killing by posing as the victim, disposing of her remains and filing a false missing persons report.
The suspect in the killing of a Chinese international student in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang, is seen on CCTV leaving his residence dressed as a woman at around 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 20.YONHAP
The man accused of killing a Chinese exchange student in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang, is refusing to undergo a psychopathy diagnostic test, police said Friday.
The Gyeongsan Police Station attempted to administer the test to the suspect, who was formally arrested the previous day on charges of murder and obstruction of official duties by deception.
The suspect initially agreed to the test but abruptly reversed his position.
Police said the test is conducted through an interview with the subject, making it difficult to carry out without his cooperation.
The man, a Chinese national, is accused of killing the student victim in her 20s at his residence in Hayang-eup, Gyeongsan, in the early hours of Aug. 20.
Police said the victim had entered Korea to receive her graduate school completion certificate.
The suspect, a university instructor at the victim's school, is accused of dismembering her body afterward and disposing of it at multiple locations across the country.
Closed-circuit television footage from around his residence, analyzed by the police and announced Thursday, captures the suspect's movements before and after the killing.
The victim is seen first arriving at his residence in Hayang-eup, Gyeongsan, around 2 a.m. on Aug. 20, pulling a suitcase behind her.
She meets the suspect, and the two enter the building together with no visible signs of coercion: He enters first, and the woman follows shortly after.
The suspect reappears on CCTV around 10:30 p.m. that day, roughly 20 hours after the time he later told police he killed the victim.
In the footage, he is wearing a skirt, a hat and a mask covering his face in an apparent attempt to resemble the victim.
The suspect in the killing of a Chinese international student in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang, leaves the Daegu District Court on Aug. 27 after attending a hearing on an arrest warrant.YONHAP
He is seen leaving the residence, pulling a suitcase and heading toward Dongdaegu Station in Daegu, where he turned off the victim's phone in what police believe was an attempt to mislead the investigation.
About two hours later, around midnight, he returns to the residence wearing men's clothing, including a hoodie.
The following day, he reported the case to the police himself, identifying himself as the victim's boyfriend and claiming she had gone missing after traveling to Daegu.
CCTV footage also shows the suspect leaving the residence again around 2:20 p.m. on Aug. 21, several hours before he filed the false missing persons report with police.
He is seen calmly walking several dozen meters to a nearby garbage dump, carrying a black plastic bag containing an object roughly the size of two soccer balls in one hand while operating his phone with the other.
Regarding his motive, the suspect has told police the killing was impulsive, stemming from a dispute with the victim, with whom he said he had been in a romantic relationship.
However, since the victim is deceased, police believe the suspect may be giving statements favorable to himself and are conducting forensic analysis of his phone and other supplementary investigations to verify the actual nature of the relationship between the two.
Police are also coordinating the schedule for a personal information disclosure committee, which will decide whether to release the suspect's identifying information, citing the crime's cruelty.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
