Female ‘true crime’ fan who killed and dismembered a woman so she could ‘try out a murder’ is jailed for life in South Korea

• Jung Yoo-jung, 23, confessed to the murder of an unnamed freelance tutor
• She has been sentenced to life but authorities originally asked for death penalty 

A South Korean true crime fan has been sentenced to life in prison after murdering and dismembering a stranger ‘out of curiosity’.

Jung Yoo-jung, 23, was said to be obsessed with crime shows, novels and also scored highly on psychopath tests.

She was fixated on the idea of trying out murder and brutally killed an English-language teacher she met on an app, stabbing her to death at her home in May.

The slaying shocked South Korea and prosecutors asked for the death penalty.

A court heard that Jung was an unemployed loner who lived with her grandfather.

Jung Yoo-jung, 23, (pictured by police) confessed to the murder of an unnamed freelance tutor 

She had been looking for victims for months using an online tutoring app to find a murder victim.

More than 50 people were contacted asking for lessons at home, mostly women.

In May she posed as the mother of a high school student who needed English lessons.

She contacted the 26-year-old victim who lived in the southeastern city of Busan.

Jung showed up at the tutor’s house dressed in a school uniform she bought online.

Police said: ‘Jung is short, and with the uniform on, the victim probably mistook her for a middle-school student.’ 

When the teacher let her in, Jung carried out a frenzied attack, stabbing her more than 100 times and carrying on the attack even after the victim had died.

Then she dismembered the victim’s body and took a taxi ride to dump some of the remains in remote parkland near a river, north of Busan.

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

Jung had been researching for months on how to kill and how to get rid of a body, according to police.

But she was careless and took no effort to avoid CCTV cameras which captured her entering and leaving the tutor’s home several times.

Jung confessed to the crime and pleaded for a more lenient sentence.

She claimed she suffered hallucinations and other mental disorders at the time.

The court rejected her argument as the crime had been ‘carefully planned’.

Also, it was noted that her statements to police had frequently changed.

At first, Jung said she only moved the body after someone else killed the woman but then she later claimed the killing happened after an argument.

Eventually, she confessed that her interest in committing murder came from her obsession with crime shows and TV programmes.

South Korea still has the death penalty but it has not been carried out since 1997.

‘Jung was found to have premeditated the crime driven by a desire to kill someone after she became obsessed with murder from TV programs and books.’ The Chosunilbo reported a Busan police spokesperson as saying.

‘Jung also said she feels sorry for what she did,’ the police spokesman added. ‘We are conducting tests to see if she is a psychopath.’

Police said Jung’s phone records show she had spent the previous three months scowling the internet for tips on how to hide a dead body.

Police also believe she used crime novels and television programs as research. Jung’s library record shows she borrowed a number of crime stories in the months before the crime.

Having planned out the crime, police said Jung visited a nearby supermarket where she bought rolls of large bin bags and bottles of bleach.

Police in the southern city of Busan (pictured) said Jung Yoo-jung was engrossed in crime stories and wanted to see what murder would be like for real

Jung then cut up and dismembered her victim and placed some of her body parts in a suitcase. She then got in a taxi and dumped the suitcase in the Nakdong River in a secluded wooded area.

Police said Jung had tried to ‘make it look like the victim had disappeared.’

‘Jung kept the victim’s mobile phone, ID card and wallet, attempting to commit a perfect crime.’ 

However, after the taxi driver became suspicious and alerted authorities, police retrieved the case to find blood-stained clothes. The remaining body parts were found in Jung’s house.

‘Jung was a loner and a recluse who has been unemployed since graduating from high school five years ago,’ police said.

Jung was escorted out of the detention centre on Friday morning for prosecution. She told reporters she feels ‘really sorry for the victim’s family,’ The Korea Times reported.

She added said, ‘I think I was out of my mind,’ when asked by reporters why she tried to cover up the murder.

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