The former insurance sales woman identified by her surname Eom, 28, suffered from serious depression and became addicted to narcotics after her daughter died of a head injury in February 2000, police said Thursday. She took out insurance in the name of her husband in March that year. Two months later, Eom made him take sleeping pills and when he was unconscious pierced his right eye with a pin, they said.

At the end of 2002, Eom pierced the eye of her second husband and again collected on the insurance. She did the same to her mother in July 2003, and then pierced both her older brother’s eyes in November that year, police said. In January this year Eom set fire to the house where she, her mother, older brother and younger brother lived together.

Eom is also suspected of setting fire to the house she rented and injuring three family members of the landlady identified as Kang. Although her family had been suspicious of successive grotesque accidents in the family, they were reluctant to credit Eom with the attacks, police said. Police asked psychologists to check Eom’s mental state.

(englishnews@chosun.com )