South Korean cafe owner held over freezer death
SingTao · 1 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago2 MIN
Summary
A woman in her 60s was found frozen to death inside a refrigerated container next to a well-known large cafe in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, after she went there on September 3 to help assess a major gift voucher transaction. Police say the container held fake department-store vouchers with a face value of about 50 billion won, and the 39-year-old male cafe owner has been detained on suspicion of luring and killing her
Key Points
- Police said the victim and the cafe owner did not know each other before meeting for the first time on September 3 at the cafe in Paju
- The woman had been asked to verify the vouchers and coordinate the deal, but CCTV showed only the owner leaving the freezer container alone
- Her family reported her missing early on September 4, and police later found her body that afternoon inside the container beside the cafe
- Investigators found 10 boxes of fake vouchers, each marked at 500,000 won, with a total face value of about 50 billion won
- The suspect was arrested in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul, and a court branch in Goyang issued a detention warrant on September 6
Why It Matters
The case is expanding beyond a homicide inquiry into a wider investigation of how the fake vouchers were produced, distributed and allegedly prepared for sale through intermediaries. For Hong Kong readers, it is also a reminder that high-value voucher or coupon trades arranged through private channels can carry both fraud and personal-safety risks