User:15minguenk/sandbox

Itaewon Burger King Murder took place on April 3, 1997 when 21 year old college student Jo Jong-pil (Hangul: 조중필; born 1976) was stabbed to death. Arthur Patterson, 18 at the time of the incident (born to American father and Korean mother) is the main suspect. Later Patterson and his friend Edward Lee were arrested but they released by Supreme Court in 1998 due to lack of evidence and Patterson was banned from travelling to South Korea. In October 2012 it was announced Patterson will face extradition by South Korean police after the DNA testing indicated he was the killer.

Information of murder

Korean-American Edward Lee and Arthur Patterson with 20 other male and female teenagers were having a party on the 4th floor of a building in Itaewon on April 3rd, 1997, where they went to the first floor of the same building to order hamburgers from a fast food restaurant. As Patterson used his pocket knife to cut his hamburger, the group started the conversation about knives. After the rest of the group went back to the 4th floor, Patterson and his friend Edward went to the bathroom, where they coincidently came in contact with Jo Jong-pil and stabbed him 9 times using the pocket knife. After, they returned back to the 4th floor and cleaned the blood in the bathroom. Patterson returned to Eighth United States Army base to meet his friend and changed pants then burned his blood stained clothes and threw away the pocket knife used for murder. On April 4th, the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) received an anonymous report and arrested Patterson. In April 6th, after seeing Edward's friend on TV, Edward's father who returned from a business trip investigated him, as Edward denied his crime they met with a lawyer and confessed the crime on the April 8th.

Controversies of murder

Although the fact that an 18 year old teenager murdered an innocent person shocked many people, the case became complicated as investigators didn't investigate the case properly. As the investigators couldn't speak English, they had problems interrogating which slowed down the initial investigation, both Arthur and Edward also claimed that they were standing next to them and the other person committed the actual murder. In addition, the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) caused problems in finding witnesses and investigation.

Edward was convicted of murder while Arthur wasn't convicted of murder but of possession of weapon.

Film

• The Case of Itaewon Homicide