Two men have been arrested on suspicion of abandoning a body in a residential neighborhood in Seoul's Guro-gu.
The Guro Police Station said Tuesday it had arrested a man in his 60s, identified as A, and a man in his 80s, identified as B, on charges of corpse abandonment and instigation of corpse abandonment, respectively, and that both were under investigation.
A is accused of dumping the body near a waste disposal site in Guro-dong, Guro-gu, on Thursday. B is accused of directing him to do so.
The two men were acquainted, and B was identified as the owner of a multi-unit residential building in Guro-gu.
Police said further investigation is needed to determine the relationship between the two suspects and the deceased, as well as the circumstances surrounding the disposal of the body.
The body was found in a partially mummified state, which police said would make determining the cause of death time-consuming.
A sanitation worker employed by the Guro-gu district office discovered the body around 11 a.m. Tuesday and reported it to police.
Police tracked down the suspects using closed-circuit television footage and arrested both men in succession around 4 p.m. that day.
The body had been left for five days wrapped in plastic and newspaper, and had undergone partial decomposition and desiccation.
Police believe the deceased was elderly but said the exact sex and age would need to be confirmed through an autopsy and other procedures.
Police have sent the body to the National Forensic Service to determine the victim's identity and cause of death.
betterj@heraldcorp.com
