The couple was discovered to have beaten 'C' with a wooden stick until it snapped from the force of the beating. Police confirmed that they repeatedly beat 'C's hands, calves, and thighs 50~70 times.

Through a corroborative investigation, police also found that the couple beat 'C' a total of three times last year at the home of 'B's younger sister for "stealing money from the church." 

Police investigated that the couple's abuse toward 'C' began in April of 2014. 'B's younger sister (39), who was in charge of raising 'C', was complicit in the abuse of 'C', beating her a total of three time for reasons such as "lying and stealing money" and "not cleaning the house entrance." The abuse spanned all the way until March of 2015, when 'C' drew her last breath after being beaten for five hours. 

Further, 'B's younger sister, who claimed that 'C' ate too much, limited the amount of food she gave to 'C' and is suspected of only feeding 'C' side dishes such as kimchi. In 'C's grade school health records, her last recorded height and weight were measured to be 142.5cm and 36.8kg (83 pounds). The height is around 10cm shorter than the average height of other children her age, the weight around 7kg (15 pounds) lower than the average weight. 

SEE ALSO: Parents who killed their daughter and hid her body undergo psychological evaluation

The police, instead of charging the felony of 'child abuse resulting in manslaughter' at the time of filing an arrest warrant against the couple, charged them with murder. 

Police, after taking into consideration the victim's physical condition, the methods of violence, the duration of abuse, and negligence of the victim, ruled that the couple committed the crime knowing clearly that their actions would have grievous consequences on their daughter. A police rep stated, "We charged them with murder after determining willful negligence and their knowledge of the possibility that their daughter may die."

The couple told police, "It's true that we abused our daughter but we had no intention to murder her. We took breaks in the middle of beating her because we grew exhausted," admitting that they did indeed abuse 'C' for long periods of time. The couple, which passed a psychological evaluation recently, further testified, "We thought that our daughter would come back to life if we just prayed," justifying the hiding of the corpse for nearly a year. 

The police rep revealed, "Because the damage to the corpse is too severe, we have to conduct an autopsy," explaining that they plan to apply the final examination results during the stages of prosecution once they are released by National Forensic Service.