When the body of a woman was discovered in a suitcase dumped in a hedgerow in a lonely country lane near York, a macabre murder mystery slowly began to unfold. Crime Reporter TONY TIERNEY looks at the gruesome tale which gripped the minds of people here and on the other side of the world

THE hideous nature of the "body in a suitcase" murder was summed up by Detective Superintendent Alan Ankers, the North Yorkshire officer who led the investigation.

"This is a horrendous crime," he said in the early stages of the investigation.

"I don't think anybody deserves to end their life as an anonymous body stuffed in a suitcase and dumped in a hedgerow."

A traffic report on the morning of Monday, November 19, 2001, drew the media's attention to a country lane near Askham Richard.

Police had sealed off the road, close to the A64, but were refusing to say why.

It would be almost 24 hours before they revealed what was found.

Bilbrough resident Paul Barlow alerted police after he became suspicious about a suitcase he had seen in a ditch at the bottom of a hedgerow.

As a police officer began to open the case, he saw hair, an eye and then feet. The scene was sealed off and investigators called in.

Once the silver-grey plastic suitcase, which measured 72cm (28.5 inches) by 50cm (20 inches) x 29cm (11.5 inches), had been examined and photographed at the scene, it was taken to the mortuary at York Hospital, where it was opened.

Inside was the badly-decomposed body of a woman. She was naked apart from a bra.

She had been crammed into the case in the foetal position, her face, head and wrists tightly wrapped with a rare type of sticky tape, which was later to prove a vital clue.

Pathology tests showed the body was Asian or Oriental, but police knew they still had a long way to go to confirm identity, and anticipated a "long and difficult" inquiry.

Officers began liaising with police forces across the country and trawling missing person reports.

Inquiries showed the suitcase had been manufactured in Seoul, South Korea, for the domestic market, with a few exported to Lebanon.

The two-inch-wide sticky tape featured a multi-coloured design by controversial London-based artists Gilbert and George. Only 841 rolls were sold through the country's four Tate art galleries.

Police were baffled as to the woman's identity, and appealed to the public for help, particularly the shocked villagers of Askham Richard and Askham Bryan.

Next, detectives released an image of a man who had been seen in the lane in the early hours of Friday, November 2, but this sighting was later ruled out.

Towards the end of December, investigators still had no idea who the woman was, though a forensic anthropologist narrowed the body's origin down to the East and South China Sea regions.

On January 9, 2002, police announced they had finally identified the woman as Hyo Jung Jin, a 21-year-old South Korean student studying in France who had travelled to London for a visit.

Her friends had become concerned when she failed to return, and alerted her family in South Korea.

The identification breakthrough came about because a South Korean police superintendent, studying at Leeds University, and who was aware of the police inquiry, had seen an appeal for information posted by Jin's brother on a Korean website.

A team of North Yorkshire detectives headed to London to work with the Metropolitan Police.

Days later, investigators announced that the disappearance of 22-year-old South Korean student In Hea Song was being linked to the discovery of Miss Jin. Both had lived at a flat in Eagle Street, Holborn, central London - home to prime suspect Kyu Soo Kim, who had sub-let rooms to them.

Detectives said they wanted to trace Kim, who had since gone missing. It was also revealed that Miss Song had travelled to York the day before Miss Jin's body was found. On January 17, 2002, officers arrested Kim at an internet caf in Bond Street, London. He had been in Canada since mid-December.

Three days later he was charged with the murder of Miss Jin.

On March 15, 2002, Miss Song's badly decomposed body was found sealed into a chamber in the house Kim rented in Poplar, east London. She too had been bound, gagged and suffocated.

Kim was then charged with Miss Song's killing. The evidence against him was damning.

Miss Jin was last seen at Kim's flat. Her blood was found on the carpet and walls of his bedroom.

Paint found on the suitcase matched paint from the flat.

Miss Jin's cash-card was used to draw £1,990 out of the same machine in Oxford Street and Kim was seen with a large amount of cash. Miss Song's bank account was also emptied.

It was said in court that the slow nature of both victim's deaths by suffocation would have given Kim opportunity to extract their PIN numbers from them.

Kim hired a Peugeot 406 car and when he brought it back it had done 655 miles - enough to cover the 424-mile round trip to York. Miss Jin's blood was found in the boot.

Checks on his mobile phone calls showed him heading north on the M1 on the night of October 31, 2000.

As Kim attempted to lay "the classic false trail" he gave a woman friend Miss Jin's bank card and PIN number and paid her to go to France where she drew the £800 maximum out of her account.

When detectives searched his Japanese ex-girlfriend's home, they found a roll of the Gilbert and George Tape.

She had the tape when she lived with Kim at Eagle Street and, at one point, it disappeared.

When it reappeared a lot had been used and there was a bloodstain on the cardboard tube. Forensic tests showed it was Kim's blood.

When Miss Song's body was discovered, two pairs of Miss Jin's shoes were hidden with her.

Det Supt Ankers said: "I think this was possibly the most complex murder investigation that North Yorkshire Police has dealt with."

Updated: 15:37 Tuesday, March 25, 2003