GUMI, South Korea– Prosecutors on Tuesday demanded imprisonment of 13 years for a 48-year-old woman surnamed Seok indicted on charges of attempting to abandon the body of her 3-year-old daughter this year and abducting her granddaughter of the same age years ago.
The case dates back to Feb. 10, when the mummified body of Seok’s young daughter, who died apparently of starvation six months earlier, was discovered at the multi-unit house of her 22-year-old daughter, surnamed Kim, in Gumi, a quiet industrial city about 260 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
At that time, the dead girl was believed to be a daughter born to Kim. But it was discovered through DNA tests in March that Seok is the biological mother of the dead girl. Prosecutors suspect that Kim and Seok each gave birth to baby girls around the same time, and the elder woman may have switched the babies so her baby would be raised by her adult daughter.
Prosecutors requested the hefty prison term for Seok during her trial at a local court, saying the offense committed by her is extremely inhumane and the nature of her crime is bad.
Seok has steadfastly denied giving birth to a baby girl, let alone other suspected offenses.
In June, Kim was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted on charges of abandoning the 3-year-old girl in an empty house and causing her death.
Source: Yonhap News Agency