Police have found the body of a 10-year-old girl who went missing about a week ago on her way to school in Tongyeong, south Gyeongsang Province, police officials said Sunday. 

According to the investigators, a 44-year-old neighbor and repeat sex offender is in police custody as a suspect. The suspect has confessed to kidnapping and murdering the girl and her body was discovered in a sack on a mountain some 10 kilometers away from her home, where he said it was.  

The police said they were trying to determine the exact cause of her death, although it looks like she had been strangled. 

A fourth-grader, the victim, Han A-ram, was last seen at around 7:30 a.m. on July 16, leaving her home to catch a bus to school. Her parents reported her missing later that day.  

Police later found her mobile phone inside a drain at a nearby bus stop.

Police went public with the investigation Friday, seeking clues from the public, after over a hundred investigators combed the neighborhood to no avail.


By Lee Sun-young
(milaya@heraldcorp.com) 



<한글 기사>

통영 女학생 살해 용의자, '성폭력 전과'
 
경남 통영에서 실종된 한아름양이 22일 경남 통 영 한 야산에서 숨진 채 발견됐다.

경찰은 한 중년 남성을 유력한 용의자로 보고 수사를 벌여왔다. 

산양초등학교 4학년인 한아름 양은 지난 16일 오전 7시30분께 학교에 간다며 집을 나선 뒤 일주일째 연락이 닿지 않았다.

통영경찰서는 지난 20일 기동대 등 수백여명을 투입, 수색을 벌였다.

시신은 마대자루에 담겨져 있었으며 목이 졸려 숨진 것으로 추정되었다.

한 양의 집 근처에 사는 김씨는 고물 수집을 하는 사람으로 성폭력 전과가 있었다고 경찰은 설명했다.

(코리아헤럴드)