Exclusive Did you want to inherit 6.9 billion won?The whole story of the "freezer body" case as seen in the ruling.

[Anchor]
YTN reporters have secured the ruling in connection with the "divorce lawsuit" in which a son in his 40s hid his father's body in a freezer and proceeded as if he were his father.

A lawsuit was underway over the father's property, which appears to be worth 6.9 billion won, and the police are intensively investigating it, believing that it could be a strong motive for the crime.

This is the exclusive report of reporter Shin Gwi-hye.

[Reporter]
A man in his 40s visited the police on the 1st, saying he had been hiding the body of his father in his 70s in a freezer for more than a year.

The police said that A had to hide his father's death due to property problems, drawing attention to the background.

The clues to the YTN report were confirmed in the divorce and property division lawsuit between A's father and stepmother B.

According to the ruling secured by YTN at the time, Mr. A's father filed for divorce from his wife, Mr. B, in 2022.

Then, Mr. B also filed a counter-suit, asking for 3.3 billion won out of his father's 6.9 billion won in assets.

However, not only the first trial but also the Supreme Court did not accept Mr. B's claim, and the ruling was confirmed in April.

[Mr. B/Mr. A's stepmother: The second trial was scheduled for September and October last year. [My son said he'd let me meet my father, and I promised him 3 times, but he was beaten up]

Experts analyze that if the divorce lawsuit had ended while the father was alive, son A would have taken up most of his wealth.

If the divorce is confirmed, stepmother B will lose much of her right to take over the property.

[Jung Soo-kyung / Lawyer: Divorced spouse is no longer a legal spouse and therefore cannot be inherited]

If the father dies in the middle of the trial and reports his death, things will change.

The death of the party invalidates the lawsuit, and the father's property is divided according to the inheritance rate set by the civil law.

Assuming that the father's property is 6.9 billion won, it is possible that up to 4.1 billion won went to his stepmother and 2.8 billion won to his son A.

My father had to survive until the Supreme Court's final decision to inherit more money.

[Seo Hye-jin / Lawyer: My son probably didn't like the money going to his stepmother. I think I would have found out enough and made my dad seem to be alive all the time....]

Still, the question remains.

The father is believed to have died around the fall of last year, and the Supreme Court ruling was confirmed in April, so why he confessed that he had only hidden his body in the freezer now.

Based on the ruling, the police are focusing not only on the specific motive of A's crime, but also on specifying the cause and timing of his father's death.

I'm YTN's Shin Gwihye.

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video: Lee Ju-yeon

Design: Baek Seungmin