Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Professor Allegedly Killed Husband After Binding And Gagging Him — Then Canceled Class For 'Personal Issue'
Gowun Park, an economics professor at Simpson College, allegedly bound her husband Sung Woo Nam with zip ties and tied him to a chair in their home for hours.
An Iowa economics professor allegedly murdered her husband, who authorities say she gagged and bound to a chair, before going on to postpone midterms in light of a "personal issue."
Gowun Park, 41, was arrested Wednesday and charged with both first degree murder and first degree kidnapping, according to the West Des Moines Police Department. She had called 911 Saturday evening to report her husband Sung Woo Nam, 41, unconscious.
Police said that when they arrived on the scene, Park was performing CPR on Nam. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The West Des Moines Police Department told Oxygen.com that it cannot provide a police report until the investigation is complete.
Park allegedly bound her husband’s hands and feet with zip ties and tied him to a chair in their home with rope on Saturday morning, officials told the Des Moines Register.
She allegedly gagged Nam by cramming "an item of clothing" in his mouth and then covering it with duct-tape. She also allegedly duct-taped a towel over his head to cover his eyes. Nam was in distress while asking to be untied in the late afternoon, but Park ignored his requests, a criminal complaint obtained by the outlet states.
While it’s not exactly clear yet how Nam died, the criminal complaint indicates he had ligature marks on the front of his neck and throat. The professor also allegedly tried to conceal the binding items before police arrived on the scene.
A possible motive for the heinous attack Park is accused of carrying out has not been revealed.
Park is an assistant economics professor at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. The school suspended her on Wednesday and it has not immediately returned Oxygen.com’s request for comment.
A day after Nam's death, Park emailed her students to cancel class and postpone a midterm to the next week, citing a “personal issue,” according to the Register.
Simpson economics student Thomas Mussig, who had Park as an academic adviser as well as a professor for three years, told the Register that Park never mentioned having a husband before.
"She would talk about how she's single," he said.
Park told him that all her family was over in South Korea, Mussig added. It’s not clear how long Nam lived in Iowa.
