'Shaman Tied Niece to Charcoal Brazier and Killed Her, Saying It Was to 'Drive Out Evil Spirits'… Supreme Court: 'Murder ...'

1. Overview

On September 18, 2024, on the second floor of a restaurant in Incheon, an A, an octogenarian shaman, and her children and followers tied her niece, the victim, to a steel frame with wire and exposed her to the heat of a charcoal fire for about three hours. The victim died two days later. The courts reached different conclusions at the first and second trials on whether the defendants had intent to kill. On September 23, 2026, the Supreme Court’s Third Division, with Justice Eom Sang-pil presiding, overturned the second-instance ruling—which had found only fatal bodily injury—and remanded the case to the Seoul High Court (2026Do6668). The ruling was reported in the media on October 14.

The first trial sentenced A to life imprisonment, but the second trial sharply reduced her sentence to seven years. The Supreme Court held that the intention to “exorcise evil spirits” could coexist with awareness that the victim “might die,” and found implied intent to kill. The case turned on how intent to kill should be assessed given the unusual background of a shamanic ritual.

2. Restaurant Operations and the Origins of the Conflict

According to Law Issue, which reported on the Supreme Court ruling, A had been a shaman since receiving a divine calling around 1986. Her followers included her four children, the family of her younger sibling H, and other lay followers. Invoking the will of the gods, A continued to control her four children after they reached adulthood, preventing them from having ordinary relationships with others or marrying, and maintained a communal living arrangement. Their livelihood depended on the labor of followers and offerings. A operated a restaurant on Jeju Island, but her financial situation worsened, and her loans reportedly reached 1.61 billion won, with monthly interest payments of more than 8.64 million won.

To address the situation, A took over a restaurant in Incheon that had been run by H’s family. From around March 2024, she registered and operated the business in the victim’s name. The victim, A’s child F, and the victim’s older brother G worked at the restaurant, but A paid them no wages and kept all the proceeds. Conflict arose when the victim, who managed sales and purchases, stopped sending the revenue to A around September 2024. A pressured the victim, saying that “an evil spirit bent on killing your mother has possessed you,” but the victim declared that she would leave for Ulleungdo, where her parents lived. The judgment summarized that A then resolved to forcibly suppress the victim’s will in order to keep her at the restaurant.

3. Charcoal-Fire Ritual

On the morning of September 18, 2024, A announced to those gathered that she would perform a shamanic ritual using a charcoal fire and instructed B and D to make a steel structure (an angle frame). The Korea Economic Daily reported that after the victim, who had been working without pay, said she would leave the restaurant, A claimed she was possessed by an evil spirit and proposed the ritual. The Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that A said, “If I remove the evil spirit, I’ll let you do what you want.”

According to the ruling, at around 3:49 p.m., the victim climbed onto the frame and lay face down on A’s instructions. B, D, and E placed a basin containing burning charcoal beneath the victim’s abdomen and tied her to the frame with wire. A sat by the victim’s head, repeatedly pulling her hair and lifting her head to slap her, or putting unlit pieces of charcoal in her mouth. At around 5 p.m., they propped a large basin upside down beneath the basin holding the charcoal, bringing the fire closer to the victim. At around 5:27 p.m., at A’s direction, C cut away the victim’s top and underwear with scissors so that the heat would reach her bare skin directly. A gag was also placed in her mouth. The Kyunghyang Shinmun and the Korea Economic Daily reported that the victim pleaded to be released, saying, “It’s hot” and “I was wrong,” and lost consciousness several times, but that the ritual continued. F and G were working on the first floor and went up to the second floor several times to take part in the ritual at A’s request.

4. Death and Emergency Call

A and C stopped the ritual at around 6:45 p.m. after the victim’s condition worsened. C did not call 119 until around 8:49 p.m. The Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that A called two hours after tidying up the scene and falsely told the medical responders that the victim had “fallen face down onto the charcoal.” The victim was taken to hospital but died at around 9:58 a.m. on September 20, 2024, from multiple organ failure caused by burns, among other complications.

5. Conflicting Rulings at the First and Second Trials

At the first trial, which was held at the Incheon District Court and ruled on September 25, 2025, the court found all defendants guilty of murder or aiding and abetting murder. It sentenced A to life imprisonment; B and C to 25 years each; D and E to 20 years each; and F and G, who were convicted of aiding and abetting, to 10 years each. It also ordered five years of probation for the defendants convicted of murder, but rejected the request for an order requiring electronic monitoring.

The second trial, however, found it difficult to establish intent to kill and convicted the defendants only of fatal bodily injury and aiding and abetting fatal bodily injury. The court cited the fact that the victim had agreed to the ritual herself and that A had performed first aid, including CPR, afterward. It found it difficult to conclude that A had a motive to kill the victim, or that the other defendants knew the specific manner and intensity with which the charcoal’s heat was being applied. The court also took into account the defendants’ belief in the efficacy of the shamanic ritual. As a result, A’s sentence was reduced to seven years, while the other six received suspended prison sentences. The second-instance court stated that, because the ritual took place while the victim trusted A’s spiritual powers, it should be more cautious about inferring implied intent to kill as readily as in an ordinary case of violence.

6. Supreme Court Overturns and Remands the Case

The Supreme Court held that a planned intention to kill is not required to establish intent to kill. Implied intent may be found if a person recognizes or foresees that their actions could cause someone’s death. It noted that “tying a person up with wire so they cannot move and heating them over burning charcoal placed beneath them is, in itself, an extremely cruel and dangerous act.” It also said that even an ordinary person could readily understand that subjecting someone to this treatment for two to three hours or more, causing extensive burns across the torso where vital organs are located, carries a very high risk of death.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court ruled that “the intention to ‘exorcise evil spirits through a shamanic ritual’ can coexist with awareness that ‘a person might die as a result of a dangerous shamanic ritual’” and that “once the risk of death has been realistically recognized, intent to kill cannot be denied on the grounds that the purpose was to exorcise evil spirits.” The Korea Economic Daily reported that the court also relied on the fact that the defendants continued despite the victim’s pleas of pain and loss of consciousness, and that they provided only brief assistance after the ritual and waited about two hours to call for help. Taken together, the court found implied intent to kill and a conspiracy among A, B, C, D, and E. It found that F and G, relatives who shared a livelihood with the victim and had a duty to protect her, aided and abetted murder by omission because they left her there without intervening or calling for help.

Because the part of the lower court’s ruling setting out its reasons for acquittal was overturned, the portions finding the defendants guilty of fatal bodily injury and aiding and abetting fatal bodily injury were also overturned in full, as those offenses were legally part of the same single crime. The portion of the case concerning the request for probation was also overturned. The Seoul High Court will conduct the proceedings on remand.

7. Authenticity debate

The central issue is whether, despite the shamanic belief that the act was meant to “exorcise evil spirits,” the defendants understood that the victim might die and accepted that risk, thereby possessing implied intent to kill.

7.1. The view that intent to kill was established

This is the view taken by the first trial and the Supreme Court. If someone is tied up with wire so that they cannot move, while charcoal burns beneath their torso for nearly three hours, they could not have been unaware of the risk of death. According to the ruling, the fire was moved toward the victim’s chest so that the heat reached her bare skin directly, and the basin was raised to bring the charcoal closer. The fact that the ritual continued even after the victim pleaded to be released and eventually lost consciousness was reported as a basis for the Supreme Court’s decision. The fact that they waited about two hours after the ritual to call for help was likewise reported as a basis for the ruling, and the Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that A falsely told the medical responders that the victim had “fallen face down onto the charcoal.” The judgment summarized that A had resolved to forcibly suppress the victim’s will in order to keep her at the restaurant. The reasoning on this side is that the intention to cast out evil spirits can coexist with awareness of the risk of death, so belief cannot be used to deny intent.

7.2. The view that the offense should be limited to fatal bodily injury

This is the view of the second-instance court. It began from the premise that A did not appear to have a motive to kill the victim. The court cited the fact that the victim climbed onto the frame and lay down herself, agreed to the ritual, and trusted A’s spiritual powers and the efficacy of the ritual. It also took into account the defendants’ belief in the ritual’s efficacy. The court further cited A’s actions afterward, including performing CPR and other first aid. Its finding that the other defendants could not be said to have known the specific manner and intensity with which the charcoal’s heat was being applied was consistent with this reasoning. The position taken by this side is that, given these circumstances, the court should be cautious about inferring implied intent to kill as readily as it would in an ordinary case of violence.

The two views assign different weight to circumstances such as the first aid provided and the victim’s consent, even though they concern the same facts. The Supreme Court overturned the ruling for legal errors, but the final determination of guilt and sentencing will be made again in the proceedings on remand.

8. Trivia

• A post on FM Korea said that the overturning and remand was surprising because it is unusual for the Supreme Court, which reviews questions of law, to overturn a second-instance ruling. The post’s title included a sarcastic reference to the second-instance judges.
• Law Issue, which reported on the Supreme Court ruling, gave the victim’s age as 35, while the Korea Economic Daily described her as being “in her 30s.” Maeil Business Newspaper used “shaman” in its headline, whereas most other outlets used “mudang” (a Korean shaman).
• A video from SBS News’ YouTube series Case Why referred to the incident in its title as “Charcoal Exorcism Murder.”
• The Supreme Court also posted the ruling in the press-reported judgments section of its website on October 16, 2026.