A woman in her 60s who had been reported missing was found dead inside a 30-square-meter, container-like freezer at a cafe in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, police said Monday.
The cafe's owner, a man in his 30s, has been arrested and detained on suspicion of luring and killing the woman. A court issued a warrant for his arrest Sunday.
The woman was reported missing in Seoul at around midnight Friday. After tracing her mobile phone location, police found her frozen body near the entrance of the freezer at around 2 p.m. that day. The temperature inside was reportedly several tens of degrees below zero.
Police identified the cafe owner as a suspect because he had been with the woman around the time of her disappearance. He was arrested in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.
The victim and the suspect are believed to have met for the first time at the cafe Thursday. The woman had reportedly visited to discuss gift certificates with the suspect, who was involved in converting gift certificates into cash.
Investigators believe the suspect led the woman into the freezer after telling her that gift certificates were stored there. Police found counterfeit department store gift certificates with a combined face value of tens of billions of won inside.
Police are investigating whether the counterfeit certificates were connected to the meeting or the alleged crime.
An autopsy will be conducted to determine whether the woman was killed inside the freezer and left there or died after being locked inside alive.
The suspect had reportedly told employees not to come to work and kept the cafe closed beginning Thursday.
tammy@heraldcorp.com
