A local woman was found dead in an apparent suicide out of despair over the death of her pet dog, police said Tuesday.

The 24-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Kim, was found dead a day earlier in a restroom of her residence in Busan, some 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, alongside burned briquettes, while embracing her dead dog, according to the police.

Investigators said they suspect she used the gas from the briquettes to poison herself.

A suicide note was found at the scene, which read, "I want to stay with my dog. Please bury us together."

While an investigation is underway into the exact cause of her death and when and how it occurred, police said they suspect she committed suicide last week following the death of the dog she raised for several years.

One of her colleagues, who first found Kim, told police, "She had failed to report to the office since last Thursday without any notice. But she had never hinted at her death until Thursday." 

The investigators said Kim had lived on her own for the past four years with her dog after being separated from her parents who did not want to raise the dog which was old and suffering from kidney dysfunction. (Yonhap News)