Korean true crime fan murdered stranger 'out of curiosity'

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 404 points – Korean true crime fan murdered stranger 'out of curiosity'
bbc.com

A South Korean court has given a life sentence to a true crime fan who told police she murdered a stranger "out of curiosity".

Jung Yoo-jung, 23, had been obsessed with crime shows and novels and scored highly on psychopath tests, police said.

Fixated with the idea of "trying out a murder", she used an app to meet an English-language teacher, stabbing her to death at her home in May.

The brutal killing shocked South Korea.

Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty - a request typically reserved for the gravest of offences.

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She was arrested after the taxi driver tipped off police about a customer who had dumped a blood-soaked suitcase in the woods.

She might have scored highly on psychopath tests, but it doesn't sound like she scored highly on IQ tests.

You’d think a true crime addict would know what to do to be a little more discreet

Although I don't even think you have to be a true crime addict to realize that taking a taxi to dispose of body parts is a ridiculously stupid idea.

Exactly, if you don't own a car like a real murderer, take the bus or ride a bike

She was discrete - there was exactly one of her, and one suitcase, and one victim. I think you might mean discreet.

Oh shit, I've probably been making the discrete/discreet mistake for years. Discreet just looks like it's spelled wrong, so I'll probably keep making that mistake.

I wonder if she wanted to kill someone’s because she was into true crime, or if she got into true crime because she already on some level wanted to kill someone. The latter is my guess.

After the teacher let her in, she attacked the woman, stabbing her more than 100 times - continuing the frenzied attack even after the victim had died.

I guess we'll never know!

I agree with you. Like violent videogames don't turn people into murderers too. Though indulging in it might've amplified the murder tendencies?

It said that she scored high on their psychopathy assessment. She would have been a psychopath prior to the podcast if the assessment is valid, unless of course, she coincidentally also had some sort of accident that caused brain damage after the podcasts.

The weird thing about this to me is how someone who has watched all this crime stuff, which generally (at least the English ones I've seen) portrays the police as being competent and successful at catching criminals, doesn't come up with a far more detailed plan to not get caught.

The interesting thing is she could genuinely have done a murder to see what it's like, just as she wanted, and probably never gotten caught. If you murder someone with no motive, no connection to you, chosen at random, in a place not close to your home or place of work or any other frequently visited locations....the police have little to go on. As a fan of these shows, she would surely be aware of this. But instead she chose to do things that would basically guarantee she's caught if the police are even minimally competent.

Maybe she wanted to get caught to have her own episode? It wouldn't be the first time something like that happened.

Everyone here is getting tunnel vision. Person obsessed with true crime podcasts kills someone makes for a good headline but it's not the reality. It should really say mentally ill person who happens to listen to podcasts kills someone.

Wait... Do people not consider psychopathy and empathetic deficiencies mental illnesses? I sure do.

I think the defining feature is whether or not it negatively affects your daily life. Hers obviously did

It's basically a copy paste of the whole "violent videogames make kids violent" clickbait for helicopter parents.

Aren't psycopaths often quite arrogant of others abilities?

From the sound of things, she wouldn't have gotten caught if she hadn't tried to dispose of the body. If she had just left after murdering the woman, it would have been much harder to solve the case.

The app she used to find the victim likely had enough of a digital trail to link back to her, so body disposal or no, she would likely have been investigated and caught sooner or later.

I don't think harder, but probably longer.

The article also says that she was caught on CCTV leaving and entering the house multiple times. Even if she left the body there, eliminating the need for her to make multiple "drop off" runs, she'd still be the last person seen entering the house and subsequent DNA evidence would be enough to convict.

The taxi driver reporting her to police just expedited how quickly she was caught. The crime would have likely been discovered as soon as the teacher failed to report in to work or to her next appointment. But if she hadn't been reported so quickly, it would have given her more time to disappear.

Someone who recently disappeared would have their meetups and messages gone through. She would have been investigated.

She would have left a strand of hair at the scene that they DNA test then the whole case gets busted upon. That's how it works in the shows anyway

if the shows are any indication, the hair strand won't be tested, and innocent person will be charged, and in 20 years, they'll figure it out after the innocent person basically became their own lawyer and found out about the hair, then managed to get the hair tested on their final appeal.

DNA testing is only useful if someone is already in the system, so long as the killer isn't in the system then they need a sample from the killer somehow to compare the DNA. This is why if you're interviewed formally by police at the station they offer you something to drink, so they can get fingerprints from the glass/cup and DNA from your saliva on the rim.

Yeah it was just a joke about the cliches of the true crime category. To be fair I don't watch true crime myself.

That was probably why she did the things that would get her caught. It wouldn't be true crime if the criminal got away with it.

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As someone who was also an English teacher working abroad (albeit in a different country), this sort of thing is my nightmare.

I had read previously of another English teacher being brutally murdered in Japan, and that was enough to convince me to never have 1-on-1 lessons in a private residence. Always meet somewhere public or teach in group settings.

You're pretty vulnerable as a foreigner abroad and cruel people will take advantage of that.

Being alone in general is not a good idea with people you haven't established trust with.

Humans are just too fickle and prone to acting on urges without thinking about the consequences. It's getting worse as more people spend less time with eachother.

I don't quite get this culture of fear.

It seems to come out of ignorance of statistics.

Be the world you want to see.

Not to piss in the soup here, but if someone wants to murder you, it's perfectly doable for them to meet you in a public place, do the lesson, and then simply follow you afterwards. I say this as a former private English teacher who has heard multiple stories from colleagues about stalker students who always had lessons in "safe" places

Don't feel bad. My kids violin instructor does the sessions at his house and is quite clear it is not a drop off and pickup deal. I imagine it has more to do with him being a guy potentially alone with young girls but it is applicable to what you are saying. Why create extra risk? Meet in public or meet with more than one person.

Is that picture them? Because if it's is, note to self: sociopaths look like AI generated people.

In Korea, or maybe other easter Asian countries, people photoshop the shit out of their CV Pictures.

This is a South Park episode.

Watch out everyone, now South Korea is going to start taking over Minecraft!

(Reference: South Park. S17E2. Informative Murder Porn)

Now she'll satisfy her curiosity about the South Korean prison system.

I truly hope the anti video game nuts start attacking true crime docs now with the same passion they've had for call of duty and gta for the last 20+ years

Is it just me, or does South Korean culture seem to be far behind the western world it's trying to emulate?

2 things -

  1. Lots of South Koreans openly oppose the Western culture, so that point is dead

  2. If you think this doesn't happen in the West, you're closing your eyes like the Binance compliance officers

Source: I live in SK outside of a foreigner hotspot

Lots of South Koreans openly oppose the Western culture, so that point is dead

I don't see it.

If you think this doesn’t happen in the West, you’re closing your eyes like the Binance compliance officers

It's more like a prevalence thing stemming from their culture.