After murdering 14 women about 30 years ago without ever been arrested, a man in South Korea confessed in court on Monday that he was the person behind one of the most notorious serial-killing cases in the country. He also shared that he was surprised because he was not caught earlier by authorities.
Fifty-seven-year-old Lee Chun-jae confessed to his crimes in front of Yoon, the sole person who was ever convicted of the murders.
Lee shared in the court in the South Korean city of Suwon that he did not think that the crimes he made would be buried forever.
The 57-year-old man made his initial confession regarding the murders about a year ago to the police, but the confession and discussion he made in the court was the first time that he had done it in public.
Because of the South Korean law which protects the privacy of criminals and suspects, the full name of Yoon was not being published publicly, but he was released in 2008 after he spent 20 years in prison for the 1988 rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl, The New York Post reported.
The said murder is just one of the 10 killings that took place between 1986 and 1991, which were also known as the Hwaesong murders after the name of the area where the murders were orchestrated.
For around three decades, the other nine murders were unsolved, but in 2003, the cases were revisited in the film of "Parasite" director Bong Joon Ho entitled "Memories of Murder."
Just last year, the police launched a probe after the latest DNA results were connected to Lee with at least a number among the killings.
Yoon, who protested his innocence, was granted a retrial after years of staying behind bars wherein his lawyers are attempting to overturn Yoon's conviction.
At the retrial of Yoon on Monday, Lee stated that when he was asked by the police at the time of the killings, he had a watch of one of the victims with him. But when the police questioned him for not having his ID card with him, he was set free right away.
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According to CNN, Lee also added that he still does not understand why he was not considered as a suspect before.
He mentioned that crimes occurred around him, and he did not try hard to hide things, so he thought that he would be caught easily as there were hundreds of police forces.
Lee even mentioned that he usually bumped into a detective all the time, but they always asked him about the people around him.
During his court discussion, Lee shared that he did not have any reason for murdering the 13-year-old at that time, and he even did not show any emotion while describing how he killed her. He added that what he did was an impulsive act.
Lee even mentioned that he heard from someone that a person with a disability was arrested, but he does not know which one he was arrested for as he had committed many crimes his entire life, WHDH reported.
Lee also apologized to the family members of the murder victims as well as Yoon.
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