Kim Sun Ja, better known as Lady Eom, gained notoriety in South Korea as a serial killer due to her lethal methods.
She employed beverages laced with potassium cyanide to end the lives of six individuals, with five fatalities occurring between 1986 and 1988. Before her execution, Lady Eom was among the final 23 individuals to receive the death penalty in South Korea.
However, this situation took a turn when President Kim Dae-Jung enforced a suspension on executions, effectively terminating the use of the death penalty in the nation.
Lady Eom holds a significant place in South Korean history as the first female serial killer in the country and for her distinctive technique of terminating her victims without physical contact.
Victims of Lady Eom South Korean serial killer
Kim Gye Hwan, an acquaintance of Lady Eom, became her initial victim. On October 31, 1986, the two visited a bathhouse together, and in the women’s restroom, Kim Sun Ja offered her companion a beverage.
Kim Gye Hwan consumed it without hesitation, and shortly after, she experienced cramps and difficulty breathing before losing consciousness.
She was taken to the hospital, where she was subsequently pronounced dead. Autopsies were not regularly carried out at the time, so the cause of death was never officially established.
In 1988, Kim Sun Ja invited another friend, Kim Soon Ja, to join her at a coffee shop and served her a drink with the same result.
The following year, she offered her 73-year-old father a drink on a bus, resulting in his death at the hospital. In the same year, she provided her younger sister with a drink while they were at the Hwayangdong bus stop, causing her to lose consciousness and enabling Kim Sun Ja to abscond with her sister’s handbag and jewelry.
Kim Sun Ja was indebted to most of her victims, and her modus operandi involved providing them with drinks that were laced with poison. She took advantage of the opportunity to flee and pilfer their possessions each time.
Evidence against her
However, the family of Son Si Won agreed to an autopsy, revealing that she, too, had succumbed to cyanide poisoning.
Subsequent investigation into the deaths of the preceding victims confirmed the same cause of death. The authorities had sufficient evidence to prove that Kim Sun Ja was accountable for all of these deaths, having poisoned the drinks she proffered to her victims with cyanide.
Despite her claims of innocence, she was convicted and executed by the Supreme Court in 1989. Kim Sun Ja was put to death in the Daejon jail in October 1997 as part of the final round of executions in the country.
She was one of the 23 violent offenders executed on that day nationwide.
