Korean boyfriend kills girlfriend with live octopus

Was it the squirmy live octopus or the suspicious greedy boyfriend? Police are reinvestigating the death of a woman to figure out who or what actually killed her.

At 2:40 a.m. on April 19 last year, a 23-year-old woman, identified as Yun, and her 30-year-old boyfriend, Kim, bought four small octopuses at a seafood restaurant in Incheon, according to officers at Incheon Nambu Police Station.

The restaurant owner said the couple had asked him to cut two of the octopuses in pieces and took the other two intact.

Then the two checked in a nearby motel. About an hour later, Kim called the motel front desk and asked for help, claiming Yun fell unconscious while eating the live octopus and was not breathing.

A worker at the motel testified that he helped Kim carry Yun on his back and her body was cold at that time. Yun was transferred to a hospital but died after 16 days in a coma.

Kim told police and Yun’s family that she suffocated while eating live octopus. As police concluded it was an accidental death, her body was cremated and the evidence at the scene was destroyed.

But it was found months later that Yun was insured for 200 million won ($189,000) a month before the death and Kim was the beneficiary. Kim received the money from the insurance company after she died, and never contacted the bereaved family.

In September, Yun’s family lodged a petition to the prosecution to investigate Kim, and prosecutors told police to reopen the case.

The family insisted he murdered her based on the fact that he bought the octopus whole, her body was cold as if she had been left long after suffocating, and he collected the insurance money.

A policeman said Kim is refusing to testify and take a lie detector test.

This time, police are suspecting murder, and prosecutors ordered police to forward the case to them.

It is yet to be decided whether the prosecution will indict him.