An affair couple who did not know the abolition of the statute of limitations for murder disappears after killing her husband. I'm getting arrested.

■ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (06:40~06:55, 12:40~12:55, 19:40~19:55)
■ Broadcast Date: November 27, 2024 (Wednesday)
■ Host: Lawyer Lee Won-hwa
■ Dialogue: Lawyer Lee Jung-min

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◆ Lawyer Lee Won-hwa (hereinafter referred to as Lee Won-hwa): November 2015, so it would have been just about this time. In Shanghai, China, a man A turned himself in, saying that he was actually an illegal resident who entered a stowaway. After that, according to Chinese law, A was immediately deported to Korea. And I was investigated by the Korean police for violating the Secret Service Act. Mr. A turned himself in, saying he was an illegal resident, but he did not answer why he had stowed away to China. And Mr. A's behavior was enough to raise doubts from the police. According to a police investigation, A was identified as a leading suspect in the murder of a man found burned in a drain 19 years ago in 1996. A denied his crime and eventually confessed, but what's strange was that a strange smile spread around A's mouth, who confesses. What happened when Mr. A said that the statute of limitations for murder had ended? Let's take a closer look at this case in today's case X file. Hello, I'm Lee Won-hwa, the case X file of lawyer Lee Won-hwa. Today, we are also with lawyer Lee Jung-min of Law Firm Roel. Welcome, lawyer.

◇ Lawyer Lee Jung-min (hereinafter referred to as Lee Jung-min): Hello, I'm lawyer Lee Jung-min of LOEL Law Firm.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: The statute of limitations for murder has been abolished now, but when this case, which we will talk about today, is still before the statute of limitations for murder has been abolished. So it's really important when you catch the criminal, so let's talk about it step by step from the beginning. A man who lived in China turned himself in because he was actually an illegal resident.

◇ Lee Jung-min: At first, something so absurd happened that I didn't understand it very well and I thought it was too conscientious. In November 2015, Mr. A went to the Public Security Bureau in Shanghai, China, and turned himself in saying, "I smuggled from Korea and entered China." And Mr. A wasn't the only one who surrendered.

◆ [Dualization] Who else was there?

◇ Lee Jung-min: Yes. There was a woman, Mr. B. Mr. B also surrenders to the Republic, saying, "I am a person who entered the country illegally."

◆ Lee Won-hwa: Did Mr. A and Mr. B know each other?

◇ Lee Jung-min: Yes, we knew each other very well. I can tell you the details later, but I also stowed away to China. A and B were so close that they also embroidered together. The embroidery of the two was also real. Both of them turned themselves in together, knowing that they would be investigated for violating smuggling laws in Korea if they were deported from China to South Korea for violating smuggling laws.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: But if you were caught hiding, you wouldn't know. Anyway, as you said, you have no choice but to come to Korea and be punished by the Secret Service Control Act. But I wonder why he turned himself in. Did he commit any crimes in China?

◇ Lee Jung-min: That's right. Violation of Korea's smuggling enforcement law is imprisonment for up to three years or a fine of up to 30 million won. Now, if you had committed a crime equivalent to that in China, you might have thought that it would be cheaper to be kicked out of China and punished in Korea. But actually, that wasn't the case. At the time, the police investigating A looked anxious as if he was being chased by something with a bushy beard. But that seemed a little excessive. My hands and feet were shaking all the time. When asked why he stowed away, he closed his mouth at all and now he couldn't even say who our president was, but he even suspected that he was a spy. So, the police, who were trying to figure out A and B's personal information one by one, confirm a strange fact about B, not A.

◆ [Dualization] What was it?

◇ Lee Jung-min: Mr. B was treated as a death from a long-term disappearance in 1996, that is, 19 years before the date he turned himself in. And in the same year, so just before B went missing in 1996, B's husband died.

◆ Dualization: Was this woman's husband also in a situation where he was killed for his long-term disappearance?

◇ Lee Jung-min: No. The husband's body was found. The Guma Expressway, so the name now is the Central Inland Expressway. Her husband's body was abandoned in 1996 in a ditch on the highway, and the next year, in the summer of 1997, when it rained, her body was revealed, and the hiker who was passing by the ditch found her body and reported it. As you can guess, B and B's husband didn't get along so well. The husband said that there was domestic violence, such as beating B every day.

◆ [Dualization] So this woman murdered her husband?

◇ Lee Jung-min: That was not it. In fact, the person who killed A, who had turned himself in earlier, had a bushy beard and was so anxious. Mr. A was a professional archer belonging to a ward office in Daegu. He stowed away to China with Mr. B and was deported to Korea together this time.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: How did Mr. A relate to this woman and her husband?

◇ Lee Jung-min: To be precise, Mr. B was a married woman who ran a local supermarket in Daegu, and Mr. A was a customer of the supermarket and Mr. B's mutual man. I told you earlier that my husband beat B too much. In fact, B had an affair with A, so it was an assault that her husband asked her why she was having an affair with A. Mr. B told his husband that I would never break up with Mr. A, so I even had a precipitation to move about 15 kilometers away from my original house.

◆ I also think that 15km is actually not that far away.

◇ Lee Jung-min: That's right. Actually, it takes about 10 minutes and 15 minutes by car. So, the affair was bound to continue, and Mr. B had no choice but to increase his anger toward his husband. A visits B's husband on December 8, 1996, after learning of the beating and abuse. I visited and loved Mr. B so much. We're now dead and can't live. You ask for a divorce from Mr. B. Of course, my husband refused. But in the process, A and her husband fight. A got so angry with her husband that A strangled her husband to death while they were fighting.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: In order to continue her affair, she eventually brutally killed her husband. You've done something you shouldn't have done for this.

◇ Lee Jung-min: Actually, what you shouldn't do is to continue the affair even though B, who you liked because of an affair, is beaten up, or to suddenly visit and demand that we get divorced because we like it. In fact, it's all wrong. However, as you said, it must have been the biggest fault to have led to the murder. After loading the husband's body into the truck, A throws the husband's body in the drain of the Central Inland Expressway I mentioned earlier and sets it on fire. The next day, A confesses to A's biological sister, who was a police officer, that he committed the murder. But my sister didn't believe what A said, and she thought she was lying because she needed money and delivered her bank account and money. However, Mr. A, who actually received the money, has lost contact since then, and his sister considers it strange and reports Mr. A's whereabouts to the police station where he was working. Around the same time, the husband's father must have been the husband and his wife, the father's daughter-in-law. When B was not seen, I reported him missing.

◆ [Voiceover] It looks like the body wasn't found at the time.

◇ Lee Jung-min: Yes. The husband, A, and B, who knew the fact, all disappeared at the same time. As I said earlier, her husband was killed in December 1996, and her body was found by a passing hiker in June 1997, six months later. The police, who genetically identified her husband's dead body, identified A and B as the culprits and publicly wanted them, but neither A nor B had any traces in Korea since January 1997. At that time, there were 15 years of statute of limitations for murder, and those 15 years passed without a hitch. On December 8, 2011, 15 years of statute of limitations will be completed. Eventually, this case remained unsolved. However, in 2015, four years after the statute of limitations was completed, A and B entered the country hoping to enter voluntarily.

◆ Binaryization: Then I don't understand it more. If you killed someone and went into hiding, shouldn't you have been hiding harder? Why did he bother to come to Korea?

◇ Lee Jung-min: As I said earlier, the statute of limitations for husband's murder was 15 years. At that time, the Criminal Procedure Act thought that, in principle, the statute of limitations was completed on December 8, 2011, and they would not be punished.

◆ Dualization: No, but if you flee abroad for the purpose of avoiding punishment, the statute of limitations is suspended. You didn't know the law, did you?

◇ Lee Jung-min: It's Article 253 of the Criminal Procedure Act, and it seems that A and B didn't know the provisions of the law. In fact, A and B are known to have been assisted by Korean-Chinese lawyers in China. I think the lawyer was a person who didn't know Korean law well. Article 253 of the Criminal Procedure Act mentioned earlier has a clause that suspends the statute of limitations for those who flee abroad to avoid punishment, but there seems to be no such law in China. That's why I think the Korean-Chinese lawyer advised me that even if I go abroad, the statute of limitations will proceed. In fact, why is the investigation continuing to proceed as I learned about this belatedly while being investigated in Korea? Why are you talking like you're going to punish me? I think he checked it while saying ''. In fact, I reversed my words by saying that until 2011, the statute of limitations was completed in Korea and then fled abroad.

◆ [Dualization] I don't think the police would have listened to this straight away.

◇ Lee Jung-min: Actually, no one would believe it. I said it was '97 at first, but the investigation continues. ’ "I actually went out in 2014. ” If you say that, it's not convincing. In fact, as I said earlier, neither A nor B has any domestic records since 1997. Mr. B was also killed for his disappearance. Of course, theoretically, they could have been hiding in the mountains from 1997 to 2014, and even if they actually looked for it, A and B didn't leave the country until April 1998, not 1997. That's why the investigative agency had to prove that it wasn't in Korea until 2014. However, there was no special evidence, and A's sister was there earlier. The prosecution will raid A's sister's house in connection with the police who A confessed to at first. From there, the prosecution will secure both the counterfeit passports of A and B with the entry stamp saying they entered Japan on April 1, 1998, and the photos they took abroad for 19 years. So, it was right to suspend the statute of limitations from 1998. There was still a statute of limitations for about 14 years from the time they entered the country.

◆ Dualization: The picture that I wanted to leave as a memory eventually caught me. All I can say is that it's really like a movie. What's the outcome of this case?

◇ Lee Jung-min: I don't think the main characters were that smart to call it a movie. Or the supporting actor who helps the main character was a little bit... Actually, A and B were investigated for murder. As I said earlier, Mr. A threw away the body. There was also an additional charge of abandoning the body. Mr. A is sentenced to 22 years in prison for all crimes. Mr. B, however, the spouse of the husband earlier is not considered to have been directly involved in the murder of his husband, so he will be sentenced to only two years in prison for smuggling. Both A and B prosecutors had appealed and appealed. Both the second trial and the Supreme Court said that the first trial ruling was valid, so A is currently serving his prison sentence. Mr. B is currently out of prison.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: Case X File Today, we looked at the case of two men and women who killed their mistress's husband and fled abroad. As mentioned earlier, the statute of limitations for murder was abolished in 2015. And because of this, so many murderers who almost couldn't be punished have been prosecuted and given due punishment. However, this case, which we looked at today, happened before the statute of limitations was abolished. So even if the criminal was caught, there could have been a situation where it could not be punished due to the statute of limitations. But for the most part, it's fun. This case was the kind of case that allowed the criminal to be caught because the statute of limitations was not abolished. The criminal's wrong calculation caught him off guard. It's a very refreshing part. That's all we've prepared. You all deserve to be defended. Thank you all for the case files.