Lluvia disarmed the plan of a son who murdered his parents for cutting the money they gave him | the tile

Moved by anger and greed, the Korean Se Hyun Park executed a macabre plan to end the lives of his stepfather and mother, who he shot dead in the head while they slept in their marriage bed.

The couple was formed by the Peruvian Marco Antonio Gómez Cruz and Hyun Young Kim.

Park planned everything for several weeks, even setting up an alibi to blame the crime on some hooded men who existed only in his head. Everything seemed to be in his place, but he never expected that the rain would spoil everything.

The double homicide occurred between the night of August 31 and the early morning of September 1, 2007 in the family's luxurious home, located in the El Prado urbanization in Curridabat.

The event shocked the country because the murdered couple was made up of two well-known business owners of the Se-Bo chain of self-service and spare parts.

When justice was done, on August 19, 2008, the Goicoechea Trial Court sentenced Park, then 22 years old, to 32 years in prison: 20 for aggravated homicide to the detriment of his mother and 12 for simple homicide to the detriment of his mother. stepfather.

The person in charge of obtaining this strong conviction was Mr. Edgardo Bonilla, the prosecutor in charge of proving the Korean's guilt.

Bonilla, who is already retired, spoke with La Teja about this notorious case, which he remembers perfectly for having been one of the few that was resolved with circumstantial evidence (indirect or circumstantial).

"In Costa Rica it was said at that time that with circumstantial evidence one could not convict, but it was applied so well that everything pointed to him (Park), no one else entered or left that house."

At 1 am on September 1, 2007, Park called the 9-1-1 emergency system to report the murder of his parents.

At the end of the call, the young man left the house and spoke with two "guachimanes" to whom he told what had supposedly happened. He then calmly waited for the judicial authorities.

Bonilla, who at that time was the coordinating prosecutor of the Crimes Against Life and Homicide Unit of the Deputy Prosecutor's Office of the Second Judicial Circuit of San José, recalls that Park's version pointed to a group of criminals as those responsible for the deadly attack against their potatoes.

“We interviewed one of the private guards, known as guachimanes, and he told us that that night the boy (Park) had told him that he went out to smoke on the sidewalk and was surprised by some individuals who entered the house, immobilized him and then They went up to the room to shoot their stepfather and mother.”

The former prosecutor says that one of the things that most caught his attention was that the crime occurred in a well-guarded, upper-class neighborhood. The victims' house was next to the Embassy of Panama, so it seemed strange to him that no one had seen anything suspicious.

"It was a place with special characteristics in the sense of surveillance, the house where the events took place was surrounded by different security guard booths, and the Administrative Police arrived very quickly on the scene," added Bonilla.

Another element that questioned the version of the young Korean was that an officer named Araya, in charge of the Curridabat Public Force, told Bonilla that there were no signs that someone had entered the house with violence, they did not even find disorder. Everything was in its place.

“We also did the luminol test, there was no blood, the scene was completely clean. This suggests that the person was ready to clean the house, since we did not find fingerprints or any type of shoe print. That motivated us to think that it was a matter of family origin, ”he explained.

Suspicions about Park increased when officer Araya and one of the guachimanes spoke to the prosecutor about the Korean's attitude after "discovering" the crime scene.

“Another detail that caught our attention was the coldness with which (Park) behaved, that detail, the manner of behavior, was noticed by the guard and members of the Public Force. They said that this boy was not scared or crying, they did not even see him upset, ”he added.

The suspicions did not stop pointing towards the young man, but it was a detail - apparently, small - that left him uncovered.

Former prosecutor Bonilla says: "I was very struck by the fact that he said that before the homicide occurred he had gone out on the sidewalk to smoke, but that night it was raining and he was dry, his clothes were completely dry."

Bonilla explained that in the Prosecutor's Office they were very aware of this detail of the rain because in a previous case they had to request a report from the National Meteorological Institute to support one of the tests they had and this time they did the same and the IMN issued a report that said yes, that night it had rained in Curridabat.

That evidence was critical to Park's arrest as no wet shoe prints or traces of mud were found in the house. In other words, no armed group entered the house.

"Added to that, a criminal analysis work was done with a mapping of all the possible escape routes and it was impossible to leave that house without anyone seeing them," adds Bonilla.

The arrest of the Korean was one more piece of the puzzle. Authorities were still tasked with determining the motive for the double homicide to prove Park's guilt.

According to Bonilla, through the investigation they discovered that the young man was upset with his parents, especially with his stepfather, because he had limited his expenses given that Park used to spend a life full of luxuries wasting money. of his family.

“We realized that this boy had gotten into trouble mainly with his stepfather, because he had a very high economic level of expenses and, apparently, they had reduced his budget, or his allowance as we Ticos say, and that had bothered him a lot. .

"We also found some emails that Park sent to his brother, who was studying abroad, telling him that he was very upset with the man for that reason," the former prosecutor explained.

Bonilla explains that Park's discontent with his stepfather was also shown in the way the double homicide was carried out.

“An expertise was carried out and it was determined that the first shot was against the stepfather, and if memory serves me correctly it was in the mouth, it was a contact shot (at close range); that indicated that his action was against his stepfather, who was the one who had been reducing his income.

“I think there was a certain degree of resentment against the mother, but not as strong as with the man. We always appreciate that perfectly one of the reasons why he shot the mother was that at the first shot from her the lady was logically going to wake up and he could not leave witnesses. He was already determined to do it.”

During the investigation, the authorities also discovered another fact that caught their attention. Three months before the double homicide, they had broken into the Park family's home.

Although that case was never solved, Bonilla thinks it was a simulation. It would have been Park himself who committed the act thinking that it would serve to divert the OIJ investigation once he committed the murder of his parents.

"That seemed very suspicious to us and we came to consider that this fact was part of the homicide preparation strategy, but it could not be verified."

According to Bonilla, this case was very similar to the one that should have been investigated when the couple's murder occurred, since the "thief" entered the property without having to force doors or windows and knew how to neutralize the anti-hijacking system of the car he took.

In addition to the vehicle, a Ssang Yong Rexton, a safe was stolen from the house containing jewelry and money that were never recovered.

The former prosecutor recalled the trial as one of the roughest stages of the entire case since Park was a very different defendant from all those he had faced and he had to be very attentive to each of his words.

“In the trial he testified once and we had to stand up strong to be able to distort what he said, he took his time preparing the whole strategy. It was atypical behavior of a homicide, and I tell you this from the knowledge of working so long in homicide; he never showed remorse, he always showed himself in a position that he was going to be acquitted”.

The lawyer representing the young man tried to bring down the prosecution's accusation by pointing out that the investigation was poorly done, that the judicial authorities arrested the wrong person and that they did not want to look for other suspects.

He also said that no traces of gunpowder were ever found on Park's hands, as if he had never fired.

Bonilla explained that the judges did not think the same, because for them all the evidence pointed to Park as the murderer.

In the end, Park received a 32-year sentence, which was appealed by his lawyer before the Cassation Chamber, however, the magistrates rejected that appeal.

The Korean is currently serving that sentence at the Jorge Arturo Montero Institutional Care Center, better known as La Reforma, in San Rafael de Alajuela.

“I remember him as a 22-year-old boy with a great future, a pity because he had everything to succeed in life, he was the typical well-off boy with enough intelligence to get a profession and be a good citizen, but I think he went astray. and he got carried away by the easy life, that's where his problems began, "said the former prosecutor.