Maryland Woman, 73, Charged with Murdering Neighbor, 82, After Calling Police to Report Incident

Police believe Chun Yong Oh had a dispute with Hwa Cha Pak before she allegedly beat her neighbor multiple times with a brick

Chun Yong Oh
Photo: Prince George’s County Police

A Maryland woman was taken into custody this week for allegedly murdering her neighbor, despite being the one to report the fatal incident to officials.

Detectives from the Prince George’s County Police Homicide Unit announced in a press release on Monday that they had arrested Chun Yong Oh in connection with the murder of her 82-year-old Bladensburg neighbor, Hwa Cha Pak.

Authorities believe a dispute between Oh, 73, and Pak broke out early Sunday morning and escalated to a point that Oh eventually “struck the victim multiple times with a brick.”

Police said Oh then called 911 to report the incident, which is where they discovered Pak’s lifeless and beaten body in the garden behind their building.

“On September 8th, at approximately 7:15 am, officers with the Bladensburg Police Department responded to an apartment building in the 5900 block of Emerson Street for a welfare check,” a spokesperson for the Prince George’s County Police Homicide Unit wrote in the release.

“They located the victim suffering from upper body trauma in a garden in the back of the building,” the spokesperson continued. “She was pronounced dead on the scene.”

A spokesperson for the Prince George’s County Police Homicide Unit tells PEOPLE that the case remains an active investigation and it is not yet clear what caused the alleged dispute between the neighbors.

Oh has since been charged with first and second-degree murder and is being held at the Department of Corrections on “a no-bond status,” according to the Prince George’s County Police Homicide Unit, which investigates all homicides in Bladensburg.

An attorney for Oh could not immediately be located by PEOPLE.

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Speaking to The Washington Post after the tragedy, Pak’s eldest grandson, Andy Kwon, expressed his heartbreak, anger and despair.

“She helped raise all of us,” Kwon told the outlet of his grandmother, whom he said followed her only son to the United States from South Korea in the 1980s and later helped raise her nine grandchildren while their parents worked.

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“She literally bounced from house to house to take care of her grandchildren,” he continued. “She gave up so much of her youth and her later life for us.”

“Who in their right mind, or what kind of evil, had to creep up to take my grandmother’s life?” Kwon angrily asked.

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact Prince George’s County Police detectives at 301-772-4925. Those wishing to remain anonymous may also call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477), or go online to http://www.pgcrimesolvers.com.

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