By Na Jeong-ju
Police’s ability to perform their duty — serve and protect — has been put in serious doubt, following the revelation that they apparently mishandled a call for help by a woman being confronted by a Korean Chinese man in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, last week.
The 28-year-old woman was killed and chopped into pieces on April 1, police said.
The 42-year-old suspect, whose Chinese name is Wu Yuanchun, was apprehended at his house hours after the murder. When officers broke in, he was found cutting the victim’s corpse into pieces.
According to police, the victim called the 112 Crime Report Center with her mobile phone at 10:58 p.m. on April 1.
A check discovered that there were about 20 officers on duty at the emergency center but no responses were made in the critical eight minutes after the women’s call-in.
In a terrified voice, she told police that she had been abducted by a man and was being raped at the man’s house.
The crime scene was found to be only seven minutes away from the nearest police station.
She said the house was located somewhere between a public playground and an elementary school in the Jidong area, but the officer kept asking her for an accurate address. She then began to plead for forgiveness to her attacker as the sound of a door being broken was heard before the phone was dropped.
The call continued for several more minutes. She didn’t hang up in order to help detectives find her location. However, officers arrived at the scene about 13 hours after the call was made.
Police are suspected of having attempted to cover up their bungling of the case.
After the murder was first reported by the media, police said the phone was hung up after 1 minute and 20 seconds. However, it was later found that her call continued for more than six minutes.
Amid a public uproar, police released a recording of the conversation Friday, in which the victim, while being attacked, screamed for help numerous times.