SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A South Korean man has been arrested after confessing to murdering his girlfriend 16 years ago and entombing her body on his balcony under a layer of cement, police told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.

The man, who is now in his 50s, was charged with murdering the woman in October 2008 during an argument, according to the Gyeongnam Provincial Police and Geoje Police Station.

He fatally struck the woman with a blunt object then placed her body in a large travel bag, police said.

He then hid the body on his balcony by stacking bricks and pouring on a 10-centimeter layer of cement. The woman wasn’t reported missing until three years later, as she was not in contact with her own family.

During a 2011 missing person inquiry, the man told police they had “broken up” and the case remained unsolved due to a lack of evidence.

A police official told reporters that the body was not discovered earlier as it had been fitted into the small balcony space, and that the room was “virtually empty since 2016.”

That year, the perpetrator was arrested for drug use, and the landlord said the property was used for storage space.