A man who engaged in a 12-hour rooftop stand-off with police is expected on Friday to be formally charged with the murder of his girlfriend.
June Oh Seo, 37, was arrested on Monday, October 9, after spending more than 12 hours perched on the balcony roof of a high-rise building in Chatswood, following the discovery of his girlfriend’s body in the laneway below.
Police arrest man after balcony stand-off
The man had been perched above a 27th-floor balcony in Chatswood, Sydney, following the discovery of a young woman’s body in the alley below. Vision courtesy Seven News.
Last week, Mr Seo was charged with a domestic violence-related assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
However, that charge is expected to be upgraded to murder on Friday, when his matter is heard at Hornsby Local Court.
During a brief mention of the case against Mr Seo in the same court last week, magistrate Daniel Reiss said that there “may or may not be further charges … I gather”.
The body of Mr Seo’s girlfriend, Hee Kyung Choi, was found about 6.30am on Monday. Her injuries were consistent with her having fallen from a height.
Within half an hour, Mr Seo could be seen perched on a perspex roof above a balcony on the 27th floor of an apartment building on Brown Street, launching an extensive police operation.
For more than 12 hours, police and a Korean interpreter negotiated with Mr Seo, before successfully removing him from the rooftop shortly after 7pm.
From 2014 until the start of this year, Ms Choi was an employee of ANZ bank, most recently working as a business bank manager, and before that as a home and investment lending manager.
In the days following her death, flowers were left in tribute to Ms Choi, including a handwritten note with the message: “I don’t think I looked after you as much as I could have.”
More to come