hankyoreh

Two people write notes on July 17 at a memorial on the Inha University campus for a young woman who died after being sexually assaulted on campus. (Yoon Woon-sik/The Hankyoreh)

“May your unfulfilled dreams come true in the next life.”

“I’m sorry we couldn’t keep you safe.”

“I don’t even know your name, but I hope you find peace.”

Inha University, in the Michuhol District of Incheon, has set up a memorial space for a student who fell to her death on campus after being raped.

Students and locals who visited the memorial space wrote notes expressing their sympathy and left wreaths to comfort the spirit of the departed. Students appeared shocked that something so horrible could occur on the campus they walk through every day.

A person writes a note on July 17 at a memorial on the Inha University campus for a young woman who died on campus after being sexually assaulted. (Yoon Woon-sik/The Hankyoreh)

The police are investigating a 20-year-old freshman at Inha University suspected of raping the woman and causing her fatal fall from the third story, which amounts to the charge of “quasi-rape resulting in death.” The current focus of investigators is whether the woman’s death was deliberate.

“Quasi-rape” is defined in Korea’s criminal code as sexual intercourse or indecent acts that “take advantage of the other’s condition of unconsciousness or inability to resist.”

The police believe the woman was sexually assaulted in a five-story building on campus before falling to her death from the third story of the building on Friday.

When the woman was discovered by a passerby at 3:49 am on that day, she was lying on the ground in front of the building, her head, ears, and mouth covered in blood, and had no pulse. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Notes and flowers fill a memorial on the Inha University campus for a young woman who died on campus after being sexually assaulted. (Yoon Woon-sik/The Hankyoreh)

A person adds a handwritten note to a memorial on the Inha University campus for a young woman who fell to her death on campus after being sexually assaulted. (Yoon Woon-sik/The Hankyoreh)

By Yoon Woon-sik, senior staff writer

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