A former police officer has been arrested on charges of stabbing his wife to death at her home while the couple was in divorce proceedings. Police believe he may have acted to avoid punishment or take revenge ahead of a verdict in a domestic violence case against him.
The Seogwipo Police Station said on the 27th that it had arrested a former police officer in his 50s, identified only as A, on charges of killing his wife, also in her 50s, during their divorce proceedings. He faces charges of revenge murder under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, along with special property damage, special trespassing and violation of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Crimes of Domestic Violence.
A is accused of using a knife to kill his wife at her home in Namwon-eup, Seogwipo, on Jeju Island, at around 3 a.m. on the 23rd.
A police investigation found that A was already standing trial in a domestic violence case on charges of assaulting and confining the victim in August last year.
A final ruling in that case had been scheduled for September, and police believe A may have committed the killing to take revenge on the victim after anticipating a conviction.
A was reported missing in Seoul on the 23rd, after the killing. Suspecting he may have gone to see his wife, police searched her home on Jeju the following day, the 24th.
It was during that search that police found the victim dead.
Police are conducting further investigation into the exact motive and circumstances of the case.
