Police have sought an arrest warrant for a man in his 20s accused of killing his mother-in-law and abducting his wife while the couple was in a court battle over the annulment of their marriage.
Seoul's Songpa Police Station said on the 12th that it requested the warrant at about 5:13 p.m. that day for the man, in his mid-20s, on charges of killing a lineal ascendant and aggravated confinement.
The man is accused of stabbing his wife's mother, a woman in her 50s, to death at her home in Munjeong-dong, Songpa District, Seoul, at about 5:38 a.m. the previous day, then forcing his wife, a woman in her 20s, into a vehicle and fleeing toward Gangwon State. Police arrested him without a warrant about seven hours later on a wooded hillside in Yangyang County, Gangwon State, and rescued the woman.
The man largely admitted to the alleged acts during questioning but gave vague accounts of the circumstances, according to police.
He had been living apart from his wife while pursuing the annulment case, and had been under police investigation since August of this year on suspicion of habitually assaulting her. Police are investigating his exact motive and whether the crime was premeditated.