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Decades-old murder case stays cold after courts clear sole suspect in custody

Published: 22 Mar. 2026, 14:22

The Seoul High Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul is seen on Feb. 5. [YONHAP]

A decades-old murder case in which a body was found inside a wastewater tank in Incheon remains shrouded in mystery after courts cleared the sole suspect in custody, citing insufficient evidence.

The Seoul High Court’s Incheon branch upheld a lower-court ruling acquitting a foreign worker of murder at a wastewater treatment plant in Incheon from 28 years ago, according to legal sources on Saturday. The worker was accused of murdering an assistant manager at the facility.

The ruling effectively leaves the case unresolved.

The case dates back to Dec. 17, 1997, when the victim went missing from a wastewater treatment subcontractor’s plant in Incheon’s Seo District. His body was found more than a month later, on Jan. 22, 1998, inside an underground wastewater tank.

The victim was discovered wrapped in a sack with a 20-kilogram (44-pound) motor tied to his chest. An autopsy found a 5-centimeter (1.9-inch) depressed skull fracture and determined the cause of death to be drowning and suffocation from wastewater contaminants.

Investigators concluded early on that multiple perpetrators were likely involved. The route to the tank was narrow, measuring only about 15 to 20 centimeters (5.9 to 7.8 inches) wide, and cluttered with pipes and equipment, making it difficult for a single person to move a grown man’s body, weighed down by a heavy motor.

Suspicion fell on three foreign workers, including the first suspect, who had reportedly been subjected to repeated verbal and physical abuse by the victim. Two days before the disappearance, the victim allegedly slapped the first suspect during a night shift, accusing the first suspect of sleeping during working hours, according to an investigation involving other workers at the factory.

All three suspects, including the first suspect, left Korea before the body was found, raising early suspicions.

A wastewater treatment factory is seen in this file photo unrelated to the story. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Two other workers, both foreigners, who were also suspected of being the main perpetrators, departed 13 days after the victim went missing, while the first suspect left two days before the body was discovered.

One of the other two foreign workers was later reported to have admitted involvement in the killing.

“He tormented us so much we had no choice but to kill him,” a second suspect said in a phone call with an acquaintance after they left the country. The second suspect also said during the call that the other two suspects were aware of the crime.

The case went cold for decades before the first suspect, who was on the run to evade an Interpol red notice, was arrested overseas in July 2024 and extradited to Korea. The first suspect was detained at an overseas airport and brought back to Korea in February last year to stand trial.

However, both the trial court and appellate court found the evidence against the first suspect insufficient to convict.

“The fact that the defendant committed or conspired to commit the murder cannot be directly proven,” the trial court said.

During the appeals trial, prosecutors argued that even if the first suspect didn't kill the victim himself, they aided the crime by failing to act, as they were the night shift worker on the day of the killing. However, this was also rejected, with the court citing insufficient evidence that the suspect knew of the crime or participated in it.

A man passes an Interpol logo in Singapore on Sept. 30, 2014, in this file photo unrelated to the story. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

While noting that the first suspect’s sudden departure — including leaving behind unpaid wages — was suspicious, the court found no physical or forensic evidence linking him to the killing.

“Even though investigative authorities searched the factory presumed to be the scene of the crime twice, the weapon used in the crime and the victim's bloodstains were not found,” the court said. “No evidence related to the defendant was found at all, not only on the work clothes and shoes left behind by the defendant but also on the victim's body.”

“Unlike the other two suspects, the alleged motive for the defendant's crime — that the first suspect harbored enough hostility to kill the victim — has not been clearly proven,” the court added. “Nor can it be ruled out that the defendant fled out of fear of being implicated after learning of the victim’s death.”

Regarding aiding and abetting, the court added that the first suspect may not have even been aware of the crime, including the possibility that he was asleep during his shift.

“The possibility that the defendant was unaware of the crime itself cannot be excluded,” the court said.

The two other key suspects remain unaccounted for, leaving the case unresolved.

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]]