A South Korean businessman who went missing in the Philippines three months ago was kidnapped by policemen and murdered on the day he disappeared, a Seoul official said on Wednesday. The family of the man, in his 50s and only identified with his surname Ji, reportedly sent the suspects a ransom of five million pesos ($100,000) two weeks after he was seized in Angeles, near Manila. But he had already been strangled to death and burned to ashes in a crematorium owned by one of the gang, a former police officer, said an official at Seoul’s foreign ministry, citing the Philippine inquiry’s findings.

Eight suspects, including three current Philippine policemen, were being investigated, the official said. “The Philippine police told us that several police officers had been named as suspects in the kidnapping and murder,” said an official at Seoul’s foreign ministry. Crimes targeting South Korean nationals in the Philippines have often made headlines. Nearly 50 South Koreans have been killed in the country since 2012.

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