Cafe owner in freezer murder case told victim to leave phone in car

A police investigation found that a cafe owner, identified only as A, 39, who was detained on charges of luring a woman in her 60s into a freezer container at his cafe in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, and killing her, told the victim to leave her cellphone in the car before the crime.

After the killing, A reportedly turned off the victim's phone and kept it separately.

According to police and a Dong-A Ilbo report Thursday, investigators who have detained A are examining whether he had planned from the outset to cut off the victim's contact with the outside world, looking into both the possibility of premeditated crime and signs of a cover-up.

A was found to have told investigators two separate lies about the victim's whereabouts after police received a missing-persons report about her.

According to the Gyeonggi Northern Police Agency, A called an investigator handling the missing-persons case twice — around 2:40 a.m. and 3:46 a.m. Friday — and lied that the victim, identified only as B, had already left after they met, when asked about her whereabouts.

At the time, police had received a missing-persons report from B's daughter around 12:06 a.m. that day and were tracking B's whereabouts based on her cellphone location. A told police that B's last known location was Majeong-ri rather than Uncheon-ri in Munsan-eup, Paju, where the cafe is located, and police reportedly searched the Majeong-ri area until 7 a.m. that day.

A reportedly told similar lies to an acquaintance who had arranged the meeting between him and B.

Investigators also found that the fake department store gift certificates — worth about 50 billion won ($37.4 million) — discovered alongside B's body in the freezer around 2:30 p.m. Friday were produced by a printing company at A's request in late July.

A had reportedly asked the company to make certificates resembling real department store gift certificates for use in a film shoot. The 500,000-won certificates had the words "for filming" printed on the back, though the notation was hidden by a paper band.

Police booked a man, identified only as C, who had brought B to the cafe, on charges of forging securities.

Police found that C had approached B, mentioning a fee, and asked her to authenticate the certificates.

A, who ran a large bakery cafe in Uncheon-ri, Munsan-eup, Paju, installed the freezer container outside the cafe between 4:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 27, a week before the killing.

Police also confirmed that A entered and exited the freezer container multiple times before and after the killing.

The National Forensic Service conducted an autopsy on the victim and gave a verbal opinion that there were no unusual signs of trauma. The final cause of death has not yet been confirmed, as the verbal opinion was not an official finding.

Meanwhile, posts claiming to reveal the identity of the suspect in the "Paju freezer murder case" have been spreading across online communities and social media. The post's author shared a photo of a man's upper body and identified him only as "Shin," born in 1987. The author added that on Wednesday the suspect told employees not to come to work and announced the cafe would be closed for the day, writing that the information was being shared in hopes that the truth would come out and a fair legal judgment would be reached, and out of respect for the victim.