South Korean police on Tuesday said that a young unmarried couple have been arrested on suspicion of illegal adoption of a child, neglect leading to the death of the child and burial without proper procedures.
Dongbu Police Station in Daegu requested the indictment of a male suspect in his 20s and a female suspect in her 30s on charges of child abuse resulting in death and abandonment of a dead body. Abusing a child to death, even with no intent to kill, is punishable between five years and a lifetime in prison.
The suspects were arrested after a yearlong investigation by Daegu police. They were tipped off by Daegu Dong-gu district officials, who found it suspicious that no vaccination records had been submitted for the child.
Investigators found that the birth mother of the baby, who gave birth early last year, sent her off to be illegally adopted because she had no means to raise the child. The two suspects adopted the baby on Feb. 24 last year because "they like kids," despite also not having the means to raise a baby.
Police believe that the child died two weeks after the illegal adoption at the suspects' home in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province. It was found that the couple had not sought medical treatment for the baby when she got sick out of fear that a hospital visit would reveal the illegal adoption.
When the child died, the two suspects allegedly buried her in a farm owned by a relative.
Police have yet to find evidence that a financial transaction had occurred in relation to the illegal adoption. Officials are conducting a probe of the birth mother on violation of the Child Welfare Act, possibly for child abandonment and neglect.
