Murder of prestigious university student, no contact history on suspect's mobile phone... 'Cut off from society and isolated' = South Korea

According to the South Korean media Herald Economic Daily, the mobile phone of the suspect, Jeong Yoo-jung (23), who murdered a woman of the same age attending a prestigious South Korean university and dumped her body, has shocked the public as there were no signs of contact with her friends.

With 'recluse' being discussed as a possible background to the crime, experts analysed that it is difficult to rule out this possibility completely.

Lawyer Song Soo Ho pointed out on a radio program on June 2nd that the suspect was in a state of "reclusion".

"Jeong was preparing to find a job after graduating from high school, but was unemployed for five years without a specific job. Looking at their mobile phone history, it seems that she did not communicate with other people," Song said. Jeong seemed to be cut off from society and in her phone, the names of her friends were not listed.

Lawyer Song said, "For that reason, she cut herself off from society and got stuck in her own area of interest and crime-related things (videos, movies, etc.), and she may have committed crimes thousands or tens of thousands of times in her head. This time, there was some kind of opportunity, and she put her imagination into action. The important thing is to find out why she felt the urge to kill, and to find out the cause and background. It will be one of the focal points in the investigation from now on."

Professor Suzy Lee of the Department of Criminal Psychology at Gyeonggi University also said on YTN's news program on June 3rd, "Is it true that all recluses become murderers? I would add much more dangerous behavior." However, she said, "It is difficult to say with certainty that reclusion was the cause of the crime, but one or two of the 100 hikikomori will end up suffering from social severance that has occurred to them." People with problematic behavior will go out in an explosive manner. Those kinds of people are really rare, but they do exist."

Jeong, who was preparing to find a job, is suspected of killing the victim with a weapon at the victim's house in Busan around 5:40 pm on May 26th and abandoning the body.

"I am sincerely sorry. I think I was insane. However, after the murder, she did not answer why she went back and forth from home or what the motive for the murder was.

In an editorial dated March 3rd, the Dong-A Ilbo said, "It has become clear that Jeong was fascinated by various crime-related movies and television works," adding, "Morality and law are rooted in culture. We should be most concerned about the fading of moral and legal sentiment in the future," pointing to the impact of movies and TV series.