After decades of futile searching, investigators have made belated progress in the “Hwaseong murders” -- a series of rapes and murders that shocked South Korea in the 1980s.



Officials of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said Wednesday that they had narrowed down the prime suspect to a man in his 50s who is currently serving a prison sentence for another rape and murder.



“In July this year, we sent part of the evidence to the National Forensic Service, which result showed that the DNA of the suspect matches at least two of the 10 cases,” officials said.



Following these updates, the agency kicked off a new investigation team and sent the rest of the related evidence to the NFS for further testing.





Police authorities investigate one of the crime scenes of the Hwaseong serial killings in the 1980s.