A chauffeur in his 50s has been placed under arrest on charges of stabbing a woman in her 70s to death at a villa in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, during the Chuseok holiday.
The Namyangju branch of the Uijeongbu District Court issued an arrest warrant on Sept. 28 for the man, identified only as A, citing a risk that he would flee.
A is accused of stabbing the woman, identified as B, several times in the neck and other parts of her body at a villa in Namyangju's Sudong-myeon at about 11 a.m. on Sept. 26. B was taken to a hospital for treatment immediately after the attack but died the following day.
Police initially detained A on suspicion of attempted murder, then changed the charge to murder after B died and applied for an arrest warrant.
Asked by reporters earlier in the afternoon, before the court hearing on the warrant, whether A had anything to say to the victim's family, A replied, "I am sorry." Asked whether the attack had been planned in advance, A said, "I have committed a crime that deserves death."
A belonged to a domestic sports organization and had worked for a long time as a chauffeur for B's husband. Investigators found that A had been preparing to quit the job recently over a workplace issue.
Police believe A carried out the attack after asking the couple for help with that issue and being turned down, and plan to continue investigating the motive.
