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Woman indicted for abandoning fetus in freezer misses second court hearing

Published: 28 Nov. 2025, 09:42

The Cheongju District Court in North Chungcheong is seen in this 2015 file photo. [YONHAP]

A naturalized Korean woman accused of hiding a stillborn fetus in her home freezer skipped her second court hearing on Thursday, prompting a judge to order authorities to track down her whereabouts.

The woman did not show up for her second hearing on a corpse abandonment charge at the Cheongju District Court’s criminal division. She also failed to attend the first hearing on Nov. 17.

The court said she had missed the proceedings again without a valid reason, and continued the trial in her absence.

“The defendant did not appear again today,” the judge said, adding the court would ask investigators to locate her.

Prosecutors sought a two-year prison sentence for the woman. They also requested a one-year sentence, suspended for two years, for her former husband, who faces the same charge without detention.

Her former husband appeared in court.

"He found the stillborn fetus by chance and buried it in the ground nearby, but it weighed on him so he reported it to the police the next day," his legal representative said while appealing for leniency.

The woman is accused of giving birth alone to a stillborn fetus at 21 to 25 weeks of gestation in the bathroom of her home in Jeungpyeong County, North Chungcheong, on Jan. 15 last year and placing the remains in the freezer compartment of her refrigerator.

Her mother-in-law found the remains about a month later while cleaning the home. The woman fled in her car that evening, and police arrested her the next day on a highway in Naju, South Jeolla.

The woman told police she hid the fetus in the freezer because she feared her long-estranged husband would discover her extramarital affair. She has an elementary school-aged daughter.

Prosecutors sought an arrest warrant after noting she fled immediately despite having a child. The court dismissed the request, saying she cooperated during questioning and did not pose an additional flight risk.

The court attempted four times between November last year and January this year to deliver her indictment after she was charged without detention. All attempts failed.

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.
BY HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]