Hwaseong serial killer, What is it all about?

The famous serial killer case due to a lot of drama and movies were made by this special case, thus letting more people to be aware about these rape cases that happened more than 30 years ago. (Currently the suspect is 56 years old - 2019) Many of drama, including:

Memories of Murder (2003)
Confession of Murder (2012)
Gap-dong (2014)
Signal (2016)
Tunnel (2017)
Criminal Minds (2017)
Partners for Justice (2018)
Signal (2018)

It was a series of 10 rapes and murders that occurred in the South Korean city of Hwaseong between September 15, 1986 and April 3, 1991. The case remained unsolved for 30 years, until Lee Choon-jae , who was serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of his sister-in-law in 1994, was identified as a suspect in three of the killings in 2019. The police still needs to make the official statement, but with the matching DNA in 3 of the murder cases, the probability is high.

The police have finally identified the man by matching DNA collected from a victim's underwear to his. Due to the end of the statute of limitations on the crime ending on April 2, 2006 (15 years in Korea), the police cannot file charges against the man. However, since he has already a life time prison on his sentence, people might loose their guard since this serial killer won't get out to public yet again.

What is it all about?

The women, ages ranging from fourteen to seventy-one, were each found gagged and murdered over a four-year and seven-month period in the rural city of Hwaseong in Gyeonggi Province. Each woman was strangled to death with her own clothes.

Fortunately even the criminal/suspect didn't get caught for the 10 murder cases, he got caught by the police for murdering his Sister in law (SIL). Thus there is no other case or victime arise after 1994, only several years after the last victim of Hwaseong case. The murder of SIL is in different fashion of the Hwaseong murder and happened in a different city far from Hwaseong area, so the police weren't able to connect them together then. He's in his 50s currently, which would put him at his 20s if he was the killer of the Hwaseong serial murders in 1986-1991.

The characteristics of the suspect, which were described by the bus driver, were largely in line with the other victims who were sexual assaulted by the culprit. According to the victims' statements, the culprit at the time of the incident was a thin-framed man in his mid-20s, with a height of 165 to 170 centimeters, a short cut sporty-type hair, no double eyelids, and a sharp nose.

10 Victims:

September 15, 1986Hwaseong, Annyeong-ri (Now called Hwasan-dong) pasturesLee Wan-im (71 years old)Statute of limitations expired on September 15, 2001, at 12 am.
October 20, 1986Hwaseong, Jinan-ri (Now called Jinan-dong) canalPark Hyun-sook (25 years old)Statute of limitations expired on October 19, 2001, at 12 am.
December 12, 1986Hwaseong, Annyeong-ri (Now called Hwasan-dong) embankmentKwon Jung-bon (25 years old)Statute of limitations expired on December 11, 2001, at 12 am.
December 14, 1986Jeongnam-myeon, Gwanhang-ri canalLee Kye-sook (23 years old)Statute of limitations expired on December 13, 2001, at 12 am.
January 10, 1987Hwaseong, Hwanggye-ri (Now called Hwasan-dong) rice paddyHong Jin-young (19 years old)Statute of limitations expired on January 9, 2002, at 12 am.
May 2, 1987Hwaseong, Jinan-ri (Now called Jinan-dong) hillPark Eun-joo (29 years old)Statute of limitations expired on May 1, 2002, at 12 am.
September 7, 1988Paltan-myeon, Gajae-ri canalAhn Gi-soon (54 years old)Statute of limitations expired on September 6, 2003, at 12 am.
September 16, 1988Hwaseong, Jinan-ri (Now called Jinan-dong) housePark Sang-hee (14 years old)On July 27, 1989, Yoon-mo (22 years old) was arrested.
November 15, 1990Hwaseong, Byeongjeom-dong (Now called Byeongjeom 1(il)-dong) hillKim Mi-jung (14 years old)Statute of limitations expired on November 14, 2005, at 12 am.
April 3, 1991Dongtan-myeon, Bansong-ri (Now called Dongtan 1-dong) hillKwon Soon-sang (69 years old)Statute of limitations expired on April 2, 2006, at 12 am.

After this, the famous Hwaseong serial killer can't be tracked and found, and yet he is actually do another crime below which result him being caught:

on January 13, 1994, Suspect (On this year is already 30 y.o) drugged his SIL (then 19 y.o) then proceeded to rape and then murder her. This was led by the fact he feels angry because his wife left him on December 18, 1993. So he took it out on the SIL when she came over for a visit. He used a hammer 4 times against SIL’s head and also strangled her to kill her. Once he murdered her he transported* her body on his motorcycle and dumped her body in a garage of a nearby hardware shop.
He was initially sentenced to death but when it got to Supreme Court, the judge ruled that “the death penalty must be only given to those who committed irreversible crimes and is absolutely necessary.” (if only they KNEW) Based on the suspect’s testimony & evidence they deemed that while “the rape was planned the murder was ‘accidental/unplanned’” and thus a “lighter” sentence of life imprisonment.

UPDATE (9/19/2019)

-Out of 10 murder cases his DNA was a match for evidence from 3 cases, specifically the 5th, 7th & 9th murders. The sample from 9th murder was from a DNA sample (most likely semen) from the victim’s underwear

-The suspect is currently serving a life sentence at a penitentiary in Busan. It puts him at 26 years old when he started his crimes.
-HE IS DENYING ANY CHARGE/INVOLVEMENT.

Below are from the media’s own investigation:

-Based on records of the known & convicted crime, the suspect’s name is Choon-jae Lee (이춘재).
-Supposedly he looks very similar to the police sketch! No actual photos have been released but it’s been reported that he does share the characteristics as specified in the original police report based on eye witnesses.
-He is a “model prisoner” and is generally considered as quiet, complacent prisoner who keeps to himself.

-One press did contact the former lead detective on the case (aka the man who the lead detective on Memories of Murder was based on). He’s in his 70s and long since retired. While he is upset that even if the suspect turns out to be the killer that he can’t be taken to trial due to the cases’ statute of limitations being expired, he is elated about the news and said this is why he doesn’t support statute of limitation, because you never know with the advancement in technology!