A mother arrested for allegedly killing her two newborn babies and storing their bodies in a home refrigerator was found to have strangled both just one day after their births, police said Friday.
Police also determined that the woman in her 30s committed the crime amid economic hardship and deceived her husband into believing that she had abortions. Police investigated the husband on charges of being an accessory to her crime but decided not to charge him.
The mother was apprehended last week for allegedly strangling her two babies to death shortly after their births in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and keeping their bodies in a refrigerator in her apartment in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul.
On Friday, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency forwarded the suspect to the prosecution on the charges of murder and concealing of a corpse. She made no comment to reporters as she was escorted out of the Suwon Nambu Police Station to be sent to the prosecutors' office.
Police revealed that the suspect had killed both babies one day after giving birth. The woman gave birth to her daughter at 2 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2018, and strangled her to death the following day after bringing her home.
She then gave birth to a son around noon on Nov. 19, 2019, and killed him the same way on her way home from the hospital, the following night.
The bodies of the babies were kept in the fridge for four years and seven months and three years and seven months, respectively, according to the police. The suspect said there was no special reason behind her storing the bodies in the fridge.
The referral came a day after police decided to apply the murder charges, which can be punished much more severely, instead of the infanticide charges, saying the murders were committed after some time had passed since the children's births, and that the same crime was acted out for two consecutive years. Infanticide charges are applied in cases where a mother kills a baby during or immediately after birth.
The Criminal Act stipulates a prison term of up to 10 years for those convicted of infanticide, and the death penalty, life sentence or an imprisonment of at least five years for those convicted of murder.
Earlier, police decided not to reveal the identity of the suspect, pointing to concerns of secondary damage being done to the rest of the family.
The woman admitted to killing the infants due to economic hardships while raising three children but told police she had lied to her husband, telling him she had two abortions.
Meanwhile, police said they are investigating a total of 79 cases involving children without birth registrations nationwide after having received 95 such reports from municipal authorities as of Friday afternoon.
Of the reported cases, police officials have so far confirmed the whereabouts of 13 children and are trying to locate 74 others. Eight children have been confirmed to have died.
Source: Yonhap News Agency