March 24, 2011
Exactly one year after a 25-year-old Cambodian woman died in a fire at her home in Chuncheon, Gangwon, police have charged her husband with arson, murder and insurance fraud.
Police say the woman’s Korean husband, 45, apparently set fire to his house while his wife was sleeping on March 18, 2010, with the aim of getting insurance money, the Gangwon Police Agency said yesterday. Police said the man had given his wife sleeping pills against her knowledge. To disguise the arson as an accident, the husband put an electronic heater close to the blanket she was covered in and the room caught fire.
According to police, the man bought six life insurance policies, worth about 1.2 billion won ($1 million), after he married the woman in March 2008. Police said he also bought a fire insurance policy two months before the arson.
Just six days after the fire, the man filed a claim for one of the policies and received 120 million won in claims. The other insurance companies rejected his claims because they were suspicious about the accident.
Soon after the fire, police closed their investigation because they had not found evidence of arson. But after an autopsy report showed that the woman had ingested a large number of sleeping pills, the police reopened the investigation, tracking down the husband’s bank accounts and insurance contracts.
“Before he got married, he had been struggling with financial problems and was addicted to gambling in casinos,” police said. “He already spent some insurance money on gambling.”
Police said the man also bought insurance policies in November 2007 just four days before he claims he suffered a stroke. He received 57 million won in insurance claims.
When the man was arrested on March 18, police said he admitted the 2007 incident was a scam. However, he denied that he killed his wife.
By Kim Hee-jin [heejin@joongang.co.kr]
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