BRENT Phone English

Police investigating the murder of a woman missing for nearly two months said yesterday her estranged husband confessed to killing her.

Kang, a 52-year-old college professor, had denied his involvement, but confessed after police presented evidence they gathered.

“Kang confessed to police that he met his wife at 11 p.m. on April 2 and he flew into a rage after the two quarreled over divorce issues in his car at a parking lot of a hotel in Haeundae, but didn’t mean to strangle her,” an investigator at Busan Bukbu Police said. “He told investigators that he put the victim’s body in a hiking sack and threw it into the river from Eulsuk Island Bridge in Saha District.”

According to investigators, the 50-year-old homemaker surnamed Park was found dead in the sack near Nakdong River on Saturday, 50 days after she left her apartment in Busan. There were marks on her neck and police suspected murder. Investigators arrested Kang the same day.

Police suspected Kang met his wife before she went missing after tracing the couple’s phone records. Park’s cell phone was turned off at 12:33 a.m. on April 3 near her husband’s apartment in Mandeok-dong and Kang called someone two minutes before at 12:31 a.m. near Mandeok Tunnel.

Bloodstains believed to be the victim’s were also found in the backseat of Kang’s car, police said.

Police suspect Kang plotted the killing in advance, given that he bought the hiking sack on March 27 at an outdoor goods store in Deokcheon-dong. The couple married in March 2010, but lived separately after the husband filed for divorce six months later.

By Kim Mi-ju, Kim Sang-jin [mijukim@joongang.co.kr]