The skeleton corpse of a 14-year-old girl was found Wednesday in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. The prime suspect is her father, with her stepmother as a possible abetting aide, police said.

The Bucheon police discovered the blanket-covered body that had been left unattended in the house for almost a year, officials said. The middle school student had been missing since March last year.

The victim’s 47-year-old father and 40-year-old stepmother were arrested on charges of accidental homicide. The father, a protestant minister, is also a professor at a local theological university.

“I found her dead in the morning, after I had scolded her the previous night, so I covered the body with a blanket and sprayed air freshener to prevent the decaying smell,” the police quoted the suspect as saying.

Authorities suspect that he had beaten his daughter to death during a quarrel.

The government has been stepping up its survey of children who have been absent from school for extended periods as an overall checkup against child abuse. The fortified surveillance was prompted by a series of high-profile child abuse cases last month, including a father who was arrested after the dismembered and frozen body of his young son was found at the home of his acquaintance. The father has admitted to having repeatedly abused the boy leading to his death.

By Bae Hyun-jung (khnews@heraldcorp.com)