The news of that day has passed, but its meaning remains with us today. "Today's That Day" reads the present through records of the past.
"I put him in the refrigerator because I had no money for a funeral."
On this day four years ago, July 26, 2022, the Seosan branch of the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office indicted and detained a man in his 20s, identified as A, on charges of murdering a lineal ascendant and abandoning a body. A had abused his dementia-stricken father to death and dumped the body in a refrigerator.
◇Abused Dementia-Stricken Father to Death, Dumped Body in Refrigerator = Around July 2021, when his father B's dementia symptoms worsened, A quit his job and took on caregiving alone.
Investigators found that beginning in January 2022, A, unable to control his anger, began slapping his father's face. From February to May, he struck his father's chest and strangled him by hand at two-day intervals.
Starting in March, A neglected B by failing to properly provide food and medicine. B, who normally had difficulty moving due to diabetes and dementia and needed help from others to eat anything, gradually deteriorated to a state of starvation.
For the seven days before B died, A gave him no food or medicine at all. Three days before his death, A also poured hot water on B's lower body, causing burns, and left him unattended.
B eventually died of diabetic complications, and four days later, A placed the body in the refrigerator compartment out of concern over the smell and insects.
About a month later, on June 30, a housing manager who had been notified of the move discovered the body while trying to replace the refrigerator with a larger one to take in another tenant. When there was no answer after knocking on the door, the manager entered through a window and opened the refrigerator, finding the body crouched inside the partition-less refrigerator compartment, wearing a diaper.
Police who received the manager's report pursued A by tracking his vehicle number and mobile phone, and apprehended him at the Seosan rest stop on the northbound lane of the West Coast Expressway.
In an autopsy, the National Forensic Service confirmed rib fractures and leg burn marks, suggesting the possibility of external impact. Police had initially applied only the charge of body abandonment, but when signs of abuse emerged, they added a charge of abuse resulting in death and referred A for detention on July 7.
In the police investigation, A confessed, "While caring for my father who could not move, when I was cleaning up excrement he left lying in the room, I remembered being abused by my father in the past, and in a fit of anger I sprayed hot water on him and beat his chest with my fists and feet."
He continued, "I tried to kill myself by crashing into the highway median, but I got scared and couldn't die," and added, "After my father died, I had no money for a funeral, so I left him in the room for three days, and when he began to decompose, I put him in the refrigerator." However, given that A had held a job until the end of 2021 and owned a car, doubts were raised over whether he really had no money for funeral expenses.
◇Charge Elevated to Murder of a Lineal Ascendant, Son Stands Trial = After conducting supplementary investigation, prosecutors confirmed circumstances of discontinued treatment and refusal of social welfare, and concluded that A had willful negligence amounting to intent to kill.
As a result, the charge of abuse resulting in death was changed to murder of a lineal ascendant (punishable by death, life imprisonment, or at least seven years), which is heavier than abuse of a lineal ascendant resulting in death (life imprisonment or at least five years), and prosecutors indicted and detained A on this charge on July 26. A prosecution official at the time told Yonhap News, "We applied a charge under which up to the death penalty could be sentenced for this heinous crime against family."
The first-trial court sentenced A to nine years in prison, stating, "The defendant failed to give food to a victim who could not live without the defendant's help, bringing him to a state of starvation and killing him through abuse. Despite the very serious nature of the crime, he denies intent to kill and shows no remorse."
Prosecutors appealed, arguing the sentence was too light, and A's side also appealed but abandoned its will during the appellate trial. On April 5, 2023, the Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office sought a 15-year prison sentence from the appellate court. A, who had denied intent to kill in the first trial, admitted the charge in the second trial, but the prosecution's sentencing recommendation remained at 15 years.
The appellate court ruled, "The nature of the defendant's crime is very serious, the culpability is great, and the act of killing his father is an inhumane criminal act that cannot be tolerated for any reason," but added, "Considering that the defendant confessed to all of the crimes at the appellate stage, and that the defendant had cared for the victim, who suffered from diabetes and dementia, alone, the original court's sentencing judgment does not exceed the reasonable scope of discretion."
A submitted a waiver of appeal to the Supreme Court to the Daejeon High Court on May 2, 2023, and as prosecutors also did not file an appeal within the appeal period, the nine-year prison sentence was confirmed that month. This case shows that abuse and neglect can lead to death. The gap in elderly care remains a task even now, four years later.
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