“Why are the targets of random murder always the weak woman?” “It is not your fault that you were murdered for being a woman.” “We were lucky to survive today, but we may not be so lucky tomorrow. Misogyny is now a problem concerning the survival of women.” “If he had worked elsewhere, I could be the one dead.”

Hundreds of memos were posted on the outer wall of Gangnam Station exit 10 in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of May 18. The memos held messages in memory of a female homicide victim killed in a unisex bathroom of a building near Gangnam Station in the early hours the previous day.

At around six a.m. this day, only a handful of memos had been posted, but as news spread through social network services (SNS), more and more citizens visited the site from lunchtime and filled the outer wall. Many with their hands together before them stood solemnly reading the memos or letting out a sigh with tears in their eyes.

Gim (34), whom the police arrested for the murder, said during the police investigation, “I did it because women looked down on me.” He had specifically revealed the motive of the crime, but many news articles identified this crime as a “random murder” because Gim and the female victim had not been acquainted.

Citizens who visited the site argued that the case was not a random murder, but a crime revealing the chronic misogyny present in South Korean society. A (27), a woman who personally came to the site from Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, posted the message, “Help Me (a woman), You (a man) Survived.” She said, “Crimes targeting women are rampant, but they continue to be packaged as ‘random acts of murder’. It wasn't a maniac who committed a random murder. This case revealed the structural problems of South Korea.”

B (24), who is preparing for the civil service exam in Noryangjin, hurried to the site and said, “I think this plainly shows the status of women in South Korea.” Yi Yu-jin (24), a college student, said, “The victim was my age, so the incident feels personal.”

Most of the citizens who visited the site were women, but there were also men. Han (25) said, “I resent and am sorry for being a man like him (the perpetrator). It is sad and regrettable that a weak woman fell victim.” Another man posted on the wall the message, “I hope that something like this will never happen again because of the hatred against women that some men have.”

When the time passed seven in the evening when the citizens returned home from work, people lighted candles on the ground and continued to remember the victim. On one side, an anonymous person left condolence flowers with the words, “I pray for you, who died because you were a woman.” Moon Jae-in, the former leader of The Minjoo Party of Korea also visited the site, read the messages posted on the wall and wrote on his Twitter, “I am sad and sorry.”

The incident also ignited a heated debate on unisex bathrooms again. Messages like “I wish they'd get rid of unisex bathrooms,” “Aren't unisex bathrooms dangerous to women?” “I once used a unisex bathroom, and saw a man peeking at me through the gap in the door,” popped up on SNS sites.

The Seocho Police Station released a record showing that Gim had been hospitalized four times since 2008 for schizophrenia, panic disorder, etc. In a press release, the police announced, “We confirmed records of Gim having been admitted to hospitals for treatment on four occasions. He was hospitalized for a month in 2008, when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia; for six months in a hospital in Bucheon in 2011; six months in a hospital in Jochiwon in 2013; and six months in a hospital in Seoul from August last year until last January.”