Restored SNS chats show Jang Yun-gi spoke of kidnapping high school girls since his teens

Prosecutors have secured statements and evidence showing that Jang Yun-gi, 24, who killed high school student Lee Chae-won in Gwangju, repeatedly said from his own high school years that he wanted to kidnap female students. Prosecutors consider the evidence central to their case that the crime was premeditated and sexually motivated.

According to prosecutors Tuesday, digital forensics on a factory-reset mobile phone Jang was carrying when police arrested him on May 5 recovered social media conversations he had with a classmate around the winter break of 2019, when he was in his first year of high school.

The recovered conversations show Jang saying he "wanted to kidnap a high school girl" and that "kidnapping her in a van would do the trick."

Prosecutors subsequently questioned the classmate and obtained a statement that Jang "often talked about kidnapping high school girls in everyday conversation."

Treating the material as evidence of Jang's intent to commit a sex crime, his premeditation and his distorted view of women, prosecutors have asked the court to call two high school classmates and two colleagues from his time as a social service worker as trial witnesses.

Jang was indicted and detained on charges of attempting to kidnap Lee, a teenage high school student, on a pedestrian path in Wolge-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju on May 5 with the intent to rape her, killing her with a bladed weapon in the process, and wounding a male high school student who ran to the scene after hearing her screams.

In the early stages of the investigation, Jang denied the charges, calling the killing "impulsive" and claiming he "did not even know the victim was a woman." Police forwarded the case to prosecutors on charges including murder, preparation for murder and attempted murder.

Prosecutors recovered the old social media conversations while expanding the scope of their forensic examination, and on that basis reclassified the charges to rape-murder, concluding the crime had been planned with a sexual motive.

Jang had told police during questioning that he "stabbed without knowing whether the victim was male or female," but later told prosecutors he "thought the victim was a female university student" and that "he would not have committed the crime had he known she was younger."

At the second hearing, held Monday, Jang acknowledged all rape-murder charges brought by prosecutors. Prosecutors said they plan to establish the specific circumstances of the crime and the degree of Jang's culpability through evidence examination and defendant questioning.