112 line mishandles call; police ask sister to go to fire station to locate phone


The suspect in the Suwon murder case is likely to have planned the crime despite his testimony that it was not premeditated.

More than a week after the murder took place the police have analyzed images taken by a security camera located about 50 meters away from the scene where the suspect first came into contact with the victim.

The footage shows the suspect, a Chinese national named Wu, hiding behind a utility pole before shoving the victim and dragging her away. Wu had told the police that he dragged the victim to his home after an argument escalated when they bumped into each other in the street.

On April 1, Wu kidnapped and murdered the victim, a 28-year old woman identified by her surname Kwak in Suwon. After being dragged to the suspect’s home, Kwak reported the incident to the police emergency line 112, before she was discovered by the suspect. The victim was subsequently murdered and her body was dismembered and placed inside 14 black plastic bags. 

Wu was transferred to the Suwon prosecutors’ office on Tuesday. Although the police were unable to turn up evidence linking Wu to other crimes, the authorities suspect that he is likely to have committed others.

The prosecutors will now be concentrating on determining whether Wu is connected to other incidents that took place near his addresses. After coming to Korea in 2007, Wu has moved around the country and stayed in Busan, Geoje in South Gyeongsang Province and in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

Meanwhile, as evidence contradicting the suspect’s testimony surfaces, the police are coming under increasing criticism for their ineffective response.

The incident has brought the police and the 112 emergency line under fire for mishandling the call and the initial search for the victim.

The victim first called the emergency line at about 10:50 p.m., but her remains were found more than 13 hours later. According to Wu’s testimony, she was killed at around 5 a.m. on April 2, more than six hours after she reported the incident.

The police recording has revealed that the officer receiving her call repeatedly asked Kwak for the address she was being held at before she was discovered by Wu.

The call remained connected for more than six minutes, during which the victim was heard pleading with Wu. However, the officer on the line is heard saying that the call appears to be about a domestic dispute. In addition, the police had initially announced that the suspect’s voice was not on the recording, but it has since been revealed that a man’s voice was heard on the tape.

In addition to the poor response, the officer on duty is reported to have failed to relay that Kwak said she was inside a house, leading to the team of detectives dispatched to the area to search a playground in the vicinity of Jidong Elementary School and outside nearby houses.

According to the victim’s family, some of the police officers dispatched to the scene also acted irresponsibly.

Members of Kwak’s family have said that two officers waiting in a police vehicle with the victim’s older sister were sleeping while the search was under way, saying only that “others were looking diligently.”

In addition, officers at Suwon Jungbu Police Station later asked the sister to go to a fire station to bring back information regarding the location of the victim’s mobile phone.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)