Jeong Du-yeong killed nine people in five separate incidents between June 1999 and April 2000. The victims were women and men of several ages, killed in homes in Busan and Ulsan, in the southeast of South Korea. He went into the houses of well-off families to steal, and he killed people who saw him or called out. He was caught on April 12, 2000, in Cheonan, in South Chungcheong Province, after a robbery at a businessman's home went wrong for him.
He was sentenced to death. The Busan High Court dismissed his appeal in December 2000, according to most reports, and he did not take the case to the Supreme Court, so the sentence became final. South Korea has not carried out an execution since December 30, 1997, when 23 prisoners were put to death on one day, and Jeong has been held as one of the country's unexecuted death-row prisoners ever since. In August 2016 he was caught trying to get out of Daejeon Prison, and in March 2017 a court added ten months to his sentence for the attempt.
The case became widely known for a second reason. Yoo Young-chul, who killed 21 people in 2003 and 2004, told prosecutors that he had taken the idea from a monthly magazine's detailed report on Jeong's crimes. Press accounts since then have often described Jeong as Yoo's model.
Jeong was born in 1968, according to News1. A report in the Tsisalaw news series says that his father died and his mother remarried, and that at about the age of five he was sent to a children's home. He did not finish elementary school and left the home at 15. YTN's 2025 account adds that he was sent to juvenile detention more than once for theft, and that he later lived with an older brother who ran a jewelry shop.
In 1986, when he was 18, he killed a man. He was sentenced to 12 years. Tsisalaw gives the term as 12 years in a juvenile reformatory, with release at the age of 30; Sidae and YTN say he served 11 years. YTN dates his release to June 1998. Within months he was arrested again, for theft, and spent about six months in custody. By March 1999 he was free once more, and by the time of his first reported killing he had been out of prison for about three months.
What Jeong said about his motive was consistent from his arrest onward. He told investigators that he had no grudge against the people he killed. He wanted money: he had set himself a target of 1 billion won, which he intended to use to marry, buy an apartment and open an internet cafe. A Seoul Shinmun radio segment from August 2026 reports that over about a year he took roughly 320 million won in goods and cash from well-off households, and that he put some 130 million won of it into savings in his own name. YTN reports that he had about 130 million won in an account when he was arrested. It also reports that he lived with a girlfriend, opened an account in her name that held about 70 million won, and sent money to her parents, presenting himself as a steady young man.
The jewelry he took was sold through his older brother, who ran a gold and jewelry shop, according to the Seoul Shinmun segment and YTN. The Law Times, in an analysis of the judgments against unexecuted death-row prisoners, says that he began breaking into empty houses from about August 1998, and that anyone who saw his face or shouted for help was killed at once. The ruling described the victims as people who could hardly resist, among them a woman of 71.
The first reported killing was on June 2, 1999, in Busan. YTN says that he took about 200,000 won from the house and killed a woman in her fifties who was there.
About three months later, on September 15, 1999, in Busan, he took about 9 million won and killed a woman in her fifties, YTN reports.
Police in Busan formed an investigation team after these killings, and YTN says that Jeong then moved his activity to Ulsan, a city to the north of Busan. There he killed a woman in her fifties and her adult son. Tsisalaw describes the son as a man in his twenties. This was a single incident with two victims.
On March 11, 2000, in Busan, Jeong killed two women. A woman in the household, the mother of a 17-month-old baby, survived. The Kyunghyang Sports preview of a 2025 television episode also describes a mother of a 17-month-old child whom he spared.
Her description of him allowed police to make a composite sketch, which was circulated across the country. KBS featured the case on its crime program 25-si, the Kyunghyang Sports piece says. The Seoul Shinmun segment adds that shoe prints had been left at several scenes.
The fifth incident, also in Busan, took the lives of an elderly couple. Tsisalaw gives the toll as three: a man and a woman in their seventies and a third person in the household. YTN's 2025 account differs, reporting that the man and one other member of the household died, and that an elderly relative survived. It took place before the arrest in April 2000; the exact date is not on record.
Across the five incidents, most reports give nine dead. The Law Times states it plainly, five robbery-murders and nine victims, and the Sidae report of the 2017 escape sentence says that he was serving a death sentence for killing nine and committing fourteen robberies. The number of people injured is given as eight in the Weekly Kyunghyang cover story and in Tsisalaw, and as ten in the Segye Ilbo, Etoday and other 2016 reports, where the figure covers people hurt to varying degrees. The press coverage of 2016 spoke of 23 robbery-murder cases between June 1999 and April 2000, which counts robberies as well as killings. A News1 report of 2024 puts ten dead in its headline, while its own tags say nine.
Jeong's last robbery was at the home of a businessman in Cheonan. YTN and the Seoul Shinmun segment agree on the outline. The businessman's wife, speaking to her husband by telephone, let him understand that something was wrong, and he called police. Jeong was caught by detectives that day.
The Kyunghyang Sports report dates the emergency call to April 12, 2000, and says that Jeong had by then been the subject of a public manhunt on KBS. At the police station in Cheonan, according to the Seoul Shinmun segment, a detective noticed that the man in custody resembled the wanted poster, and the pattern on the soles of his shoes matched the prints from the Busan scenes. Survivors identified him. He confessed to all of the Busan, Ulsan and Cheonan robberies and killings, and YTN adds that he confessed to other crimes as well.
In police questioning Jeong said that he did not know whether a devil lived inside him. Reports quote the remark in slightly different words. Etoday and Kookje Shinmun give "there seems to have been a devil inside me"; Tsisalaw and the Seoul Shinmun segment give "a devil lives inside me". The statement angered victims' families, Tsisalaw says. The Seoul Shinmun segment says that he showed no sign of regret to the victims or their families in questioning. YTN reports that at trial he apologized and said he could never atone.
Police also checked former convicts in Busan, and Jeong was among those they spoke to before his arrest. YTN says that when he was contacted he replied that he was trying to live an honest life.
Jeong was tried and sentenced to death at first instance. The first-instance court and date are not on record. He appealed, and the Busan High Court dismissed the appeal. Segye Ilbo, Hankook Ilbo, Etoday, Law Times and Seoul Shinmun all say that the Busan High Court sentenced him to death in December 2000; an Insight report from 2018 gives November 2000. Because he then gave up his right to appeal to the Supreme Court, the death sentence became final without a Supreme Court ruling.
The Law Times analysis quotes the judgment's reasoning. The court found the result of the crimes impossible to accept and held that it was right to isolate him from society permanently.
Jeong was held on death row. Sidae and Seoul Shinmun reported in 2017 that he was serving the sentence at Daejeon Prison, the facility where the escape attempt took place. A report in September 2023 from Asia Economy, on the transfer of Yoo Young-chul to Seoul Detention Center, lists Jeong among the death-row prisoners held there.
In early August 2016, Jeong tried to escape from Daejeon Prison. The prison did not announce it; it became known when the press reported it on September 28, 2016. The Hankook Ilbo report dates it to August 8, 2016. Daejeon Prison confirmed that it had been an escape attempt but did not give a date, Segye Ilbo said. Sidae and Seoul Shinmun give the month as August 2016.
The prison placed him in solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure and pursued criminal charges, according to the Hankook Ilbo report of September 30, 2016. Officials were reassigned, the Ministry of Justice inspected the prison, and disciplinary proceedings for negligence followed. A prison official said no inside accomplice had been identified. A Tsisalaw article of September 2026, drawn from the memoir of a prison officer, says that the warden was suspended for three months and more than ten other staff were disciplined or warned.
On March 20, 2017, the Daejeon District Court (single-judge criminal division 3) sentenced Jeong to ten months in prison for attempted escape, as Sidae, Busan Ilbo and Seoul Shinmun reported. The judge said that such an offense undermines the state's criminal justice function and its authority over prisoners, and must be punished strictly. The ten months were added to the death sentence; they did not change its status.
In February 2026, the Sisa Journal reported that 57 people, all men, were under sentence of death in South Korea, 53 civilians and four military prisoners, and that Jeong was among them. The report puts the last executions at December 30, 1997, when 23 prisoners were executed, and notes that the country is therefore classed as abolitionist in practice. A Tsisalaw article of September 2026 still called him a death-row prisoner. No change to his sentence has been reported.
The number of dead is reported as nine in nearly every account and as ten in a News1 headline of 2024. The Law Times analysis of the court judgment gives five incidents and nine dead.
The victim breakdown in the last incident differs: three dead in the Tsisalaw report; two dead and an elderly relative surviving in the YTN account. The total of nine is consistent with Tsisalaw's breakdown.
The date of the Busan High Court ruling is reported as December 2000 by most outlets and as November 2000 by one.
The escape attempt is dated early August 2016, with August 8 in the Hankook Ilbo report. A News1 report of 2024 gives September 28, 2016, the date the press first reported it.
The Sisa Journal's 2026 report places the attempt in August 2009; every other account says 2016.
One Tsisalaw article says the sentence was finalized in 2008 after a court upheld eight of the charges. This conflicts with the many reports that Jeong gave up his Supreme Court appeal after the December 2000 ruling.
No further killings have been attributed to or confessed by Jeong, apart from his 1986 killing as a teenager.
1968: Jeong Du-yeong is born (News1).
About age five: sent to a children's home after his father's death; leaves at 15.
1986: at 18, kills a man; sentenced to 12 years.
June 1998: released; arrested in September 1998 for theft and held for about six months.
March 1999: free again.
June 2, 1999: first reported killing, Busan.
September 15, 1999: second reported killing, Busan.
Late 1999 to early 2000: kills a woman and her adult son in Ulsan.
March 11, 2000: kills two women in a large house in Busan; a woman with a 17-month-old child is spared and helps police make a sketch.
Early 2000: kills an elderly couple and a third person in their household in Busan.
April 12, 2000: arrested in Cheonan after a robbery at a businessman's home; confesses.
December 2000: Busan High Court sentences him to death (one report: November 2000); he does not appeal to the Supreme Court.
August 2016: caught trying to escape from Daejeon Prison (August 8 in one report).
September 28, 2016: the attempt becomes public.
March 20, 2017: Daejeon District Court adds 10 months for attempted escape.
September 2023: reported held at Seoul Detention Center.
February 2026: reported among the 57 prisoners under sentence of death; no executions since December 30, 1997.
September 2026: described as a death-row prisoner in a Tsisalaw article.