Three South Korean men have been arrested and confessed to their roles in the murder and dismemberment of a compatriot last week in what was allegedly a dispute over an online gambling business.
Two of the men — identified by local media as Kim Chang-hoon and Kay — were arrested yesterday afternoon after the first, Kim Hong-jun (no relation), turned himself in to the South Korean Embassy at 1am the same day.
Hong-jun was subsequently handed over to Thai authorities, to whom he confessed being an accessory to the murder of 35-year-old Choi Myunghoon, whose body parts were found dismembered and stuffed into three plastic bags in a forest in Rayong province on Monday, reported Khaosod.
A computer programmer, Hong-jun told police that he was hired by Chang-hoon to program an online gambling website in secret at a three-story house in Rayong’s Meung District.
While he worked, Chang-hoon and Choi would handle online gambling activities and send money to superiors in South Korea, he told police.
On Jan. 16, Hong-jun was on the third floor of the house when he claims he heard Chang-hoon arguing with the victim. He told police that he came down to find them fighting but was ordered back upstairs.
When he returned, Choi was allegedly dead. Chang-hoon, he said, then threatened him with violence if he wouldn’t help dismember and discard the body.
“I feared that I would be killed like Choi, as Kim used the knife that killed Choi to threaten me,” Hong-jun said, according to The Nation.
After his arrest, Chang-hoon, meanwhile, told authorities that Choi was the main investor in their gambling website.
On the day of the incident, frustration with not receiving his last two payments and dissatisfaction with his percentage of the business boiled over, leading him to stab his boss to death during their quarrel, he told police.
The third alleged perpetrator, Kay, confessed to renting the car used to disposed of the body. He, however, denies taking part in or having any knowledge of the murder.
Police are continuing to question the perpetrators in detail.
They plan to conduct a crime reenactment, both at the three-story house and the forest where the body was disposed of, today.
