(LEAD) Police seek arrest warrants for couple for abandoning mother's body in suitcase

▲ The Daegu Bukbu Police Station (Yonhap)

▲ This captured footage from a security camera in the southeastern city of Daegu, provided by a reader on April 1, 2026, shows a couple in their 20s carrying a suitcase containing the body of the wife's mother on March 18. Police in Daegu have detained the couple on charges of abandoning the body in a local stream. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) body abandonment-suspects

(LEAD) Police seek arrest warrants for couple for abandoning mother's body in suitcase

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES with more info throughout; ADDS photo)

DAEGU, April 1 (Yonhap) -- Police on Wednesday sought warrants to detain a couple in their 20s on charges of placing the wife's mother's body in a suitcase and abandoning it in a stream in southeastern Daegu.

The Daegu Bukbu Police Station, which is investigating the case, charged the husband with killing a family member and disposing of a body, while the wife faces charges of disposing of a body.

The couple were urgently detained Tuesday night after confessing during police interrogation that they put the body in a suitcase at their home in central Daegu, 250 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on March 18, then walked to the nearby Sincheon Stream and left it there.

The interrogation took place after residents reported the suitcase floating in the stream and the police confirmed through CCTV analysis that the couple were seen leaving their home dragging the same bag.

The male suspect reportedly told police that he attacked his mother-in-law, in her 50s, because she was "usually noisy and did not organize her belongings."

Authorities said the wife accompanied him while transporting the body to the stream.

A preliminary autopsy found multiple fractures on several parts of the victim's body, including the ribs and pelvis.

Police said the cause of death is presumed to be multiple traumatic injuries inflicted by external force.

(END)

(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved