A woman in her 30s who was going through divorce proceedings was stabbed to death despite having reported domestic violence to police five times. Police identified her husband as the prime suspect and arrested him within half a day.
Gwangju Police Station in Gyeonggi Province said it made an emergency arrest of a man identified as A on murder charges at around 11:40 a.m. on the 1st at a motel in Jangan District, Suwon. A is accused of stabbing his wife, identified as B, multiple times with a knife at a multi-unit residential building in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, at around 7:17 a.m. the same day. The couple had been in divorce proceedings.
B alerted police directly by pressing a smartwatch during the attack. A neighbor who realized what had happened also called police to report that a person was lying collapsed inside the building. B was found in cardiac arrest and taken to a hospital, but died. Her 5-year-old daughter was with her and suffered an injury to her finger.
A left the scene on a motorcycle wearing a hat pulled low, according to police. Nearby closed-circuit television footage captured A arriving at the scene on a motorcycle, attacking B with a knife and fleeing.
Police tracked A based on the footage and took him into custody at the motel in Jangan District at around 11:40 a.m. He was attempting to take his own life at the time of the arrest. A is a public official.
The victim had reported domestic violence by A to police or sought counseling five times between March last year and recently. She told police she did not want him punished, according to police.
Police conducted their own investigation in May this year, booked the husband on domestic violence charges and referred the case to prosecutors. B filed for divorce last month and had obtained a temporary protection order from the court.
B had also contacted police for counseling, saying she believed her address had been exposed to her husband during the delivery of divorce filing documents. Police responded by providing her with a smartwatch and taking other precautions, but the killing could not be prevented.
