Lee Choon-jae
Lee Chun-jae (Korean: 이춘재; born 31 January 1963) is a South Korean serial killer known for committing the Hwaseong serial murders. Between 1986 and 1994, Lee murdered fifteen women and girls in addition to committing numerous sexual assaults, predominantly in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, and the surrounding areas. The murders, which remained unsolved for thirty years, are considered to be the most infamous in modern South Korean history and were the inspiration for the 2003 film Memories of Murder.
Lee Chun-jae | |
|---|---|
이춘재 | |
Lee Chun-jae in his high school graduation photo when he was 20 years old (1983) | |
| Born | January 31, 1963 (age 61) Gyeonggi, South Korea |
| Criminal status | Incarcerated |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment (eligible for parole after 21 years) |
| Details | |
| Victims | >45 (1 convicted murder, 14 confessed murders, and more than 30 confessed rapes and attempted rapes) |
Span of crimes | February 8, 1986 – January 13, 1994 |
| Country | South Korea |
| Location(s) | Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, South Korea |
| Killed | 15 (1 convicted, 14 confessed) |
Date apprehended | January 18, 1994 |
| Imprisoned at | Prison |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 이춘재 |
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | I Chun-jae |
| McCune–Reischauer | I Chun-chae |
Lee was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after twenty years for killing his sister-in-law in 1994, but despite DNA evidence and his confession to the other murders in 2019, he could not be prosecuted for them because the statute of limitations had expired.