South Korea’s Most Infamous Serial Killer
He would gag and rape his victims before strangling them with their own clothes.
Between September 15, 1986, and April 3, 1991, a serial rapist and murderer terrorized Hwaseong, a rural city in South Korea. Despite the two million police officers deployed over the years to track down the culprit, the killer remained elusive, fueling the public’s collective fear and even inspiring the 2003 hit film Memories of Murder.
The killer’s identity remained a mystery for 40 years. But detectives never gave up on this cold case. With the help of advances in DNA technology, police identified 56-year-old Lee Chun-jae as a suspect in 2019. Lee eventually confessed to raping and murdering 14 women and admitted to 30 other rapes or attempted rapes.
Background
The first victim was an elderly woman, Lee Wan-im, who disappeared on September 15, 1986. She had just returned home from visiting her daughter. Her body was found four days later in a pasture. The killer struck again a month later, on October 20, 1986, this time, the victim was 25-year-old Park Hyun-sook. Her body was found three days later in a canal.
Over the next four years and seven months, the killer would strike eight more times. The victims were all women who ranged…
