Suwon Jungbu Police Station in Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency

A family of four was found dead in an apartment in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, in what police suspect to be a case of murder-suicide.

Police confirmed the identity of the father found in the apartment parking lot, but didn't discover the bodies of his family members living in the same apartment until a day later.

The father in his 40s was said to have suffered from economic hardship after failing to recover 300 million won ($225,000) he had lent to an acquaintance, Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency and Suwon Jungbu Police Station said Tuesday. The man, who ran his own business, had repeatedly asked the borrower to repay the debt, citing his worsening living situation.

In recent text messages, he wrote, "I don't want to pass this debt on to my children," and "Please repay me soon — I'm struggling to get by."

Authorities believe the man may have killed his family before taking his own life. Police discovered his body in the parking lot of the apartment complex in Suwon's Jangan District around 4:30 a.m. Sunday after responding to a resident's report.

Although the man's identity was confirmed through fingerprint analysis at 7:55 a.m., police did not immediately check the apartment where he lived with his wife and two children.

Investigators later revealed that they were aware the man lived in the building with his wife, a son in middle school and a younger daughter in elementary school. However, they did not forcibly enter the home, citing a neighbor's remark that the family often traveled on weekends.

No evidence of forced entry?

While CCTV footage showed only the man's movements, it did not show his wife or children leaving the apartment. Despite calling the wife more than 20 times, police focused solely on locating her rather than opening the apartment door.

It was not until around 11 a.m. Monday, more than 27 hours after identifying the man, that police, accompanied by another relative they had located using local administrative records, accessed the apartment using the door password.

Inside the main bedroom, they found the bodies of the wife and two children. Marks indicating strangulation and burn traces were found on their necks, but no note was discovered.

The delay in discovering the other victims has sparked public criticism over the police's handling of the case.

In response, a police official said, "As it was Sunday, the local administrative office was closed, which made it difficult to locate the next of kin. It was also not an easy decision to proceed with forced entry." Police said they plan to conduct forensic analysis of the couple's mobile phones to further investigate the circumstances of their deaths.

An autopsy by the National Forensic Service will determine the exact time and cause of death. However, if it is confirmed that the wife and children were still alive after the father's death, questions over the delayed response by police are likely to intensify.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.