Police have booked a woman on suspicion of neglecting her newborn to death and abandoning the body on a hill in 2014, officials said Friday.
The woman in her 30s is accused of abandoning the body of her newborn as the baby died three or four days after she gave birth at a hospital in South Chungcheong Province in 2014.
She told the police that she woke up to find the baby dead for an unknown reason and buried the body on a nearby hill. She reportedly had the baby with a man she was living with at the time and had told him about the burial.
The police launched a search operation for the baby's body on the hill the previous day but could not find it, police officials said.
The Osan Police Station raised charges of child negligence leading to death against the woman as the seven-year statute of limitations for body abandonment had already expired for the case.
"There is a possibility we may detain the suspect in case the body of the baby is found during the search or if criminal suspicions of child abuse leading to death or murder are found," police said.
It marks the latest in a series of shocking baby abuse cases revealed as a nationwide campaign has been under way to confirm the well-being of more than 2,000 undocumented babies born between 2015-2022.
Source: Yonhap News Agency