Oh is accused of bludgeoning to death Hwa Cha Pak around 7:15 a.m. before calling 911 to report what she had done, authorities said. Pak's body was found in a garden behind the apartment building, suffering from "upper body trauma." She was pronounced dead at the scene, police officials said.
Oh and Pak, who neighbors told NBC Washington were longtime friends, were involved in a dispute prior to the slaying, police officials said. Sources told ABC7 that Oh had loaned Pak money, and she had stopped making payments on the loan.
"That's ridiculous," resident Millie Jones told ABC7. "I almost cannot really believe it, but things do happen."
Resident Jackie Barratt told the news station she knew Pak well and had learned some Korean so she could tell her hello in her native tongue.
"She was so delightful," Barratt said. "She was so cute. Everybody loved her."
Pak's oldest grandson, Andy Kwon, told The Washington Post he was angry when he learned his grandmother had been slain.
"Who in their right mind, or what kind of evil, had to creep up to take my grandmother's life?" Kwon said.
His anger turned to shock when he learned another elderly woman was accused of the homicide, the Post reported. Kwon, who is stationed at Fort Bragg, said the family is praying for the woman who killed his grandmother.
"God is our creator, and in the end, he judges us by everything we say and do," Kwon told the Post. "Her judgment will be before God. We pray God will show mercy to her."
Kwon described his grandmother as a single mother from South Korea who followed her son to the U.S. in the 1980s and helped raise her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Each time one of her nine grandchildren came into the world, Pak was there to care for them as their parents worked.
"She helped raise all of us," Kwon told the Post. "She literally bounced from house to house to take care of her grandchildren."
A great-grandmother of three, Pak would prepare Korean feasts for her family when they came to visit her apartment.
"Every inch of that table was filled with food," Kwon told the newspaper. "She gave up so much of her youth and her later life for us."
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