Victim's alleged stalker remains at large; court had declined police request to arrest the suspect
A Daegu woman was found fatally stabbed inside her home Tuesday morning while under police protection following a stalking crime targeting the victim.
The woman in her 50s was found by her family at around 3:30 a.m., stabbed in her apartment in Dalseo-gu, Daegu, according to the Daegu Seongseo Police Station. She was taken to a hospital, but was pronounced dead an hour later.
There were no signs of theft at her home, leading police to suspect the man accused of stalking her. Officials were unable to find the murder weapon.
The stalking suspect, a man in his 40s under investigation for threatening the victim with a knife a month earlier, is believed to have climbed down a gas pipe to break into the victim's home on the sixth floor of the building. The man is believed to have fled the city, and the Daegu police have requested cooperation from other police stations in adjacent regions.
The incident sparked criticism of law enforcement as officers were unaware of the crime until her family reported it, despite the police having installed a surveillance camera equipped with facial recognition technology in front of the victim's home. The suspect apparently wore a mask when he passed by the camera.
Prior to the incident, the police had requested a warrant from a court to arrest the suspect, but the court denied the request, saying that sufficient evidence had already been collected in the stalking case and that the suspect was cooperating with investigators.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
