The Korea Times

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Caregiver tragedy: Son sentenced to 7 years for killing bedridden mother

A man in his 40s drove toward Paldang Dam, just east of Seoul, on March 3, 2025, with his 86-year-old father and his 82-year-old mother, who had spent years bedridden. Late spring snow fell silently outside the car. Wrapped in thick clothes, his mother sat in the back seat and stared at the gray sky. She said nothing as the father and son spoke quietly in the front. It was the family’s last trip together. The next morning, at about 10:30, the mother died in bed inside an apartment in Goyang, just northwest of Seoul. She had eaten breakfast prepared by her husband, then took a sleeping pill given to her by her son and fell asleep. The National Forensic Service later found that she died of strangulation. That afternoon, the son jumped into the Han River. A passerby reported him, and emergency responders pulled him from the water. Dazed after the rescue, he said, “My mom asked me to kill her ... so I killed her.” Eleven years earlier, his mother collapsed from a brain hemorrhage. The son had been looking for work, but after that his life revolved entirely around her care. As the thir

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