hankyoreh

Police tape blocks the entrance to an apartment in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, where a 10-year-old girl was fatally mistreated while in the care of her aunt and uncle. (Yonhap News)

South Korean police have learned that a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in the bathtub at her aunt’s house had been abused by her aunt and uncle. In a shocking and brutal twist, the couple apparently tortured the girl by holding her head under the water because she had been disobedient.

On Feb. 9, the Yongin Eastern Police Department in Gyeonggi Province decided to ask the court to issue an arrest warrant for the girl’s aunt and uncle, who are both in their 30s. The couple are suspected of fatally abusing their niece, who was under their care.

The couple testified to the police that they’d been raising their niece since November 2020 and had hit her over the previous two days because she disobeyed them and couldn’t control her bladder. They admitted that on the morning of Feb. 8, they filled the bathtub and held their niece’s head under the water several times in an attempt to discipline her.

When the couple noticed that their niece was no longer breathing and that her body had gone limp, they pulled her out of the water and called 119, Korea’s emergency hotline. When the paramedics arrived at 12:35 pm, the girl’s heart had already stopped. They administered CPR while rushing her to the hospital but were unable to revive her.

The paramedics and hospital staff found bruises all over the dead girl’s body and filed a report of suspected child abuse.

When they were first questioned, the couple told the police that they’d “lightly hit” the girl a few times. The police arrested them on the spot for violating child abuse laws.

Later, the police pressed the couple about whether they’d treated their niece abusively while taking care of her. At that point, the couple said they’d beaten her with a plastic broomstick as a form of discipline on several occasions.

On the morning of Feb. 9, the police received a preliminary oral report from the National Forensic Service, which is in charge of the autopsy. The coroner said the cause of death appeared to be secondary shock.

Numerous bruises caused by beatings were evident on various parts of the dead girl’s body, including her thighs. She’d been bruised and injured by being smacked with a plastic flyswatter and beaten with a plastic broomstick.

There were also reportedly rope marks on the girl’s arms, leading the police to think she may have been tied up for her beatings.

However, the police say it was unlikely that the girl drowned because of the lack of the purplish splotches that typically appear in such cases.

“Secondary shock would mean that the girl died from shock when her blood circulation fell because of subcutaneous bleeding resulting from physical trauma. It’s presumed that this shock could have been caused by her head being held underwater and the beating she was given before that,” the police said.

The exact cause of death will probably be announced in about two weeks, along with the detailed coroner’s report. The police are continuing to investigate when the couple started beating and abusing their niece.

Investigators learned that the dead girl was living at her aunt’s house for various reasons, including the fact that her mother had moved away for a job.

The aunt and uncle also apparently have three children of their own, aged 12, five and two. The older two are living with another aunt, while the youngest is living with a grandfather.

The police are expanding their investigation to look into the possibility that the couple may also have abused their own children.

By Kim Gi-seong, South Gyeonggi correspondent

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]