Australian arrested for killing of S. Korean in Brisbane

SYDNEY/SEOUL (Yonhap News) ― An Australian teenager has been caught as a suspect in the brutal battering to death of a South Korean woman in Brisbane, police in Australia and Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

According to the Queensland Police Service, the 19-year-old man named Alex Reuben McEwan was arrested on Monday on charges of killing the 22-year-old South Korean woman and abandoning her body at Wickham Park the previous day.

He faced the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday, according to local media reports.

She was attacked while walking from her apartment to her cleaning job at a hotel in Brisbane at around 4 a.m. on Sunday.

When she was found by a passer-by some 30 minutes later, she was dead after sustaining serious head injuries, officers said.

No signs of sexual assault or robbery were found, the police said, adding they are investigating his motives.

The victim, who attended a university in South Korea’s southern port city of Busan, arrived in Australia some six weeks ago for a working holiday program.

“Her parents arrived in the city to claim her body, and the government has been supporting the bereaved family in a required process for an investigation and funeral,” Seoul‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a brief statement.

“The tragedy sparks anxiety among Koreans staying there. We’ve asked them to pay extra attention to their safety, while trying more to better protect them,” a ministry official said.

Some 12,500 South Koreans reside in Australia, which is one of the most popular destinations for students to study English.