When a doctor at Severance Hospital reported in January that his pregnant wife had slipped in the bathtub and died, it seemed like a tragic household accident.

But police suspect there was no accident at all, and that the husband strangled the eight-months pregnant hagwon English teacher. A local court refused to issue an arrest warrant, however, because “there’s still a likelihood that the woman died by accident” and the suspect’s rights must be protected.

The unnamed husband, 32, a resident at one of the capital’s top hospitals, has strongly denied any guilt.

At 5 p.m. on Jan. 14, the doctor reported to police that he discovered his wife dead in the couple’s bathtub, according to Mapo District police. During questioning, he told investigators that he assumed his wife slipped in the tub. The fetus was also dead.

But an autopsy by the National Institute of Scientific Investigation on Feb. 1 came to a different conclusion, police said.

Forensic pathologists found the 29-year-old woman had been strangled to death and they found her husband’s DNA under the dead woman’s blood-stained fingernails. She was expecting her first child this month, investigators said, and had been teaching English to elementary school students at a hagwon in Anyang, Gyeonggi, until the day before her death. The couple was married two years.

On Feb. 3, police sought a warrant to arrest the husband on a charge of murder, but were rejected by a local court the following day. The Seoul Western District Court explained it turned down the request to detain the husband because his guilt wasn’t obvious and “chances are unlikely that the man will flee or destroy evidence.”

Police said they have circumstantial evidence to prove his alleged guilt. They said they are suspicious that the husband didn’t answer phone calls from his wife’s hagwon on Jan. 14 when she didn’t show up for class. The doctor said he left home early that morning to study in a library in the neighborhood and couldn’t answer the calls, police said.

The man continues to deny any guilt, and has suggested another person might have killed his wife.

Police said they plan to seek another warrant. Choi Jong-sang, the investigator in charge of the case, said he’s “absolutely sure that the husband is responsible for his wife’s death.” According to Choi, “There were scars on both faces of the couple.”

Lee Chang-yeol, a judge in charge of the court’s public relations, said issuing an arrest warrant doesn’t determine the suspect’s innocence or guilt.

“It’s just a legal procedure,” Lee said.
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Essential Vocabulary: arrest warrant: 구속 영장/forensic pathologist: 법의학 병리학자/the suspect:용의자