South Korean police ID possible serial killer responsible for 9 murders over 30 years ago

South Korean police announced today that authorities have identified a suspect wanted in nine murders that took place between 1986 and 1991.  The suspect is a 56-year-old man who is serving a life sentence for the 1994 rape and murder of his sister-in-law.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/south-korea-serial-killer-30-years

Police said technological improvement of DNA analysis enabled authorities to extract DNA samples from evidence that was not previously possible.

Seoul’s senior police officer said:

I express my deep condolences to the victims and their families, as well as the Korean public, for not having been able to solve this case for a long time.  We will do our best to discover the truth with a sense of historical responsibility.

Yesterday, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced that a suspected serial killer was charged in the murders of four women since 2018.  It is believed the four women were sex workers.  Worthy said they are investigating two other murders believed to be committed by the same man.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/19/us/detroit-serial-killer-charges/index.html

We worked tirelessly to make sure we can bring [the women] some modicum of justice, of respect and dignity, no matter what they were engaged in before, during and after they were reported missing.

[To the families and friends of the women, Worthy said:]

We truly care about the person that you loved and the person that you lost.

In the days after Tim’s body was found, I remember reading news articles stating that “privately,” some in law enforcement were relieved Tim had been dumped in Wayne County because that meant Wayne County Medical Examiner Werner Spitz would be conducting the autopsy instead of Oakland County Medical Examiner Robert J. Sillery.  I remember thinking, wow, that is a real stretch for a silver lining here.  It would be decades before I would understand the true level of Sillery’s incompetence.

And it would be decades before I comprehended how “lucky” we were that Tim was dumped in Wayne County.  Kym Worthy is to Jessica Cooper as Werner Spitz was to Robert Sillery.