412
submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

A South Korean court has given a life sentence to a true crime fan who told police she murdered a stranger "out of curiosity".

Jung Yoo-jung, 23, had been obsessed with crime shows and novels and scored highly on psychopath tests, police said.

Fixated with the idea of "trying out a murder", she used an app to meet an English-language teacher, stabbing her to death at her home in May.

The brutal killing shocked South Korea.

Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty - a request typically reserved for the gravest of offences.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 203 points 9 months ago

She was arrested after the taxi driver tipped off police about a customer who had dumped a blood-soaked suitcase in the woods.

She might have scored highly on psychopath tests, but it doesn't sound like she scored highly on IQ tests.

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 159 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

You’d think a true crime addict would know what to do to be a little more discreet

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 94 points 9 months ago

Although I don't even think you have to be a true crime addict to realize that taking a taxi to dispose of body parts is a ridiculously stupid idea.

[-] tetris11@lemmy.ml 31 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Exactly, if you don't own a car like a real murderer, take the bus or ride a bike

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

Valid point

[-] quindraco@lemm.ee 55 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

She was discrete - there was exactly one of her, and one suitcase, and one victim. I think you might mean discreet.

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago
[-] Guntrigger@feddit.ch 3 points 9 months ago

That's homophonic.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 114 points 9 months ago

I wonder if she wanted to kill someone’s because she was into true crime, or if she got into true crime because she already on some level wanted to kill someone. The latter is my guess.

[-] RedditWanderer@lemmy.world 68 points 9 months ago

After the teacher let her in, she attacked the woman, stabbing her more than 100 times - continuing the frenzied attack even after the victim had died.

I guess we'll never know!

[-] RandomStickman@kbin.social 35 points 9 months ago

I agree with you. Like violent videogames don't turn people into murderers too. Though indulging in it might've amplified the murder tendencies?

[-] Leviathan@lemmy.world 36 points 9 months ago

Or someone with violent tendencies would enjoy indulging in violent videogames.

[-] CowsLookLikeMaps@sh.itjust.works 7 points 9 months ago

I guess we'll never know!

stabby stab stab

[-] Kid_Thunder@kbin.social 14 points 9 months ago

It said that she scored high on their psychopathy assessment. She would have been a psychopath prior to the podcast if the assessment is valid, unless of course, she coincidentally also had some sort of accident that caused brain damage after the podcasts.

[-] Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.works 90 points 9 months ago

The weird thing about this to me is how someone who has watched all this crime stuff, which generally (at least the English ones I've seen) portrays the police as being competent and successful at catching criminals, doesn't come up with a far more detailed plan to not get caught.

The interesting thing is she could genuinely have done a murder to see what it's like, just as she wanted, and probably never gotten caught. If you murder someone with no motive, no connection to you, chosen at random, in a place not close to your home or place of work or any other frequently visited locations....the police have little to go on. As a fan of these shows, she would surely be aware of this. But instead she chose to do things that would basically guarantee she's caught if the police are even minimally competent.

[-] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 53 points 9 months ago

Maybe she wanted to get caught to have her own episode? It wouldn't be the first time something like that happened.

[-] RaincoatsGeorge@lemmy.zip 61 points 9 months ago

Everyone here is getting tunnel vision. Person obsessed with true crime podcasts kills someone makes for a good headline but it's not the reality. It should really say mentally ill person who happens to listen to podcasts kills someone.

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago

Wait... Do people not consider psychopathy and empathetic deficiencies mental illnesses? I sure do.

[-] ChexMax@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

I think the defining feature is whether or not it negatively affects your daily life. Hers obviously did

[-] CowsLookLikeMaps@sh.itjust.works 10 points 9 months ago

It's basically a copy paste of the whole "violent videogames make kids violent" clickbait for helicopter parents.

[-] stoy@lemmy.zip 17 points 9 months ago

Aren't psycopaths often quite arrogant of others abilities?

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago

From the sound of things, she wouldn't have gotten caught if she hadn't tried to dispose of the body. If she had just left after murdering the woman, it would have been much harder to solve the case.

[-] Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.works 28 points 9 months ago

The app she used to find the victim likely had enough of a digital trail to link back to her, so body disposal or no, she would likely have been investigated and caught sooner or later.

[-] Stovetop@lemmy.world 19 points 9 months ago

I don't think harder, but probably longer.

The article also says that she was caught on CCTV leaving and entering the house multiple times. Even if she left the body there, eliminating the need for her to make multiple "drop off" runs, she'd still be the last person seen entering the house and subsequent DNA evidence would be enough to convict.

The taxi driver reporting her to police just expedited how quickly she was caught. The crime would have likely been discovered as soon as the teacher failed to report in to work or to her next appointment. But if she hadn't been reported so quickly, it would have given her more time to disappear.

[-] Mac@mander.xyz 10 points 9 months ago

Someone who recently disappeared would have their meetups and messages gone through. She would have been investigated.

[-] stifle867@programming.dev 4 points 9 months ago

She would have left a strand of hair at the scene that they DNA test then the whole case gets busted upon. That's how it works in the shows anyway

[-] wrath_of_grunge@kbin.social 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

if the shows are any indication, the hair strand won't be tested, and innocent person will be charged, and in 20 years, they'll figure it out after the innocent person basically became their own lawyer and found out about the hair, then managed to get the hair tested on their final appeal.

[-] VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

DNA testing is only useful if someone is already in the system, so long as the killer isn't in the system then they need a sample from the killer somehow to compare the DNA. This is why if you're interviewed formally by police at the station they offer you something to drink, so they can get fingerprints from the glass/cup and DNA from your saliva on the rim.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Eezyville@sh.itjust.works 7 points 9 months ago

That was probably why she did the things that would get her caught. It wouldn't be true crime if the criminal got away with it.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] ExLisper@linux.community 61 points 9 months ago

I don't watch true crime because it always felt like exploitation to me.

[-] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

He's fucking HIS YOUNG HOT SECRETARY behind the mrs BACK with a scandalous entanglement. Mmm soon to be single wifey plots revenge by plunging a kitchen knife through mr. Infidelites cold dead heart.... Ohhhhh yes how will she get away with killing the man she once called LOVER?..... tonight at 11:00

You mean that kind of exploitation?

[-] interceder270@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Is that really what true crime is like? I've only seen more grounded things like Rob Dyke and Lordan Arts, but that sounds terrible.

Seems more like 'reality' crime.

[-] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 months ago

It used to be. There's a lot of true crime podcasts/YouTube channels out there that isn't like that at all.

[-] MonsiuerPatEBrown@reddthat.com 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I agree. But I still was fascinated with how people that do interrogations for a big part of their life deal with that experience. I mean, I got super grumpy with all people while doing pager/phone duty as a sysadmin.

I can't imagine how I would feel about reality if I was dealing with people in those extremes.

[-] HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I do watch true crime and I know what you mean, and I personally do struggle with whether it's even ethical to watch it. No matter how respectfully they approach it and no matter how good their intentions may or may not be, even if the wanted to raise awareness for unsolved cold cases just in case people watching may have information, it still doesn't change the reality that they are making a spectacle out of and directly profiting from someone else's tragedy without their consent or knowledge.

Then you have truly disgusting people in the true crime space like this: https://nypost.com/2023/07/12/youtuber-slammed-for-charging-to-see-autopsy-photos-of-boy-11/

And then you have CBC, Canada's national, State owned broadcasting service. They also have multiple true crime shows/podcasts, where they have reporters employed by the Canadian government interviewing police and investigators who are also employed by the Canadian government. There's nothing wrong with that on its own, BUT, it gets infuriating sometimes because there have been cases where the reporters get really suspicious that a certain person did it and has dug up a ton of seemingly new evidence that supports it, and the police wouldn't even comment on it, sound super apathetic when being told all this, and seem to have absolutely no intention to investigate further after the reporters brought their findings to them and gave them a bunch of (seemingly) new leads. Like if another government agency has already done half the work for you why would you not follow up? Is the goal of the government only to talk about horrific monsters that take the lives of their citizens and not to actually punish them and remove them from society? I suppose it's possible that the police already investigated that avenue and ruled it out and are just not telling the reporters (and by extension the public), but if that's the case why not just come out and say that so not only the suspected person's name is cleared and also let the public know that they are indeed on top of the investigation?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 38 points 9 months ago

Korea even photoshops mugshots.

[-] interceder270@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

It's a different culture for sure.

[-] Stovetop@lemmy.world 27 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

As someone who was also an English teacher working abroad (albeit in a different country), this sort of thing is my nightmare.

I had read previously of another English teacher being brutally murdered in Japan, and that was enough to convince me to never have 1-on-1 lessons in a private residence. Always meet somewhere public or teach in group settings.

You're pretty vulnerable as a foreigner abroad and cruel people will take advantage of that.

[-] interceder270@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

Being alone in general is not a good idea with people you haven't established trust with.

Humans are just too fickle and prone to acting on urges without thinking about the consequences. It's getting worse as more people spend less time with eachother.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 9 months ago

Is that picture them? Because if it's is, note to self: sociopaths look like AI generated people.

[-] telllos@lemmy.world 30 points 9 months ago

In Korea, or maybe other easter Asian countries, people photoshop the shit out of their CV Pictures.

[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 21 points 9 months ago

The idea of even having a CV picture is very off-putting to me.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Pickle_Jr@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 9 months ago

This is a South Park episode.

Watch out everyone, now South Korea is going to start taking over Minecraft!

(Reference: South Park. S17E2. Informative Murder Porn)

[-] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 17 points 9 months ago

Now she'll satisfy her curiosity about the South Korean prison system.

[-] mangosloth@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I truly hope the anti video game nuts start attacking true crime docs now with the same passion they've had for call of duty and gta for the last 20+ years

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
412 points (97.9% liked)

News

22855 readers
4928 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS