Dad tied 5-year-old to training toilet, beat her to death, WA officials say

A dad has been charged in connection to the death of his 5-year-old daughter, Washington officials said.

On May 29, Federal Way police officers responded to an apartment building after Woo Jin Hahn, 29, called 911 and said, “I think I have an emergency,” according to the charging documents.

Hahn told the operator a 5-year-old girl wasn’t breathing, and as the dispatcher talked him through how to administer CPR, he began compressions, documents said.

Officers were met at the door by Hahn’s girlfriend, who directed them to the bedroom where they found Hahn “crouching” near his daughter, documents said

She was lying in the corner of the room with her eyes open but not breathing, officials said.

She had two cuts on her forehead and bruises on her cheeks and chin, officials said.

When asked why the girl had bruises, Hahn replied, “from disciplining her,” officials said.

Three separate children were found in a different bedroom with Hahn’s girlfriend when she told officers he had been beating the girl the day before by “punching her in the stomach,” officials said.

Hahn told investigators the girl had been sick and would wake him up periodically by doing somersaults in the room, documents said. He eventually awoke again to find her having “strange sounding breathing.”

Hahn would beat his daughter with a metal cup as a means to “correct” her “childish” behavior of only drinking water and refusing to eat, documents said.

The girl, who was nonverbal and not potty trained, had diarrhea and was tied to a training toilet by a towel, officials said.

Hahn told investigators he tied her to the toilet because she had a “habit of dipping her hands in her fecal matter and brushing it onto her teeth or onto the walls,” documents said.

Hahn said he “snapped” after the girl “continued to wiggle around on the potty” before spilling feces on the ground. He then began punching her “as hard as he could numerous times in the ribs,” documents said.

Hahn’s girlfriend of four years told investigators he was “controlling” and that she was “scared of him because of his anger issues and how very small things would ‘set him off,’” documents said.

During one instance of the alleged abuse, the girlfriend took photos of the 5-year-old’s bruising after seeing Hahn hit her before he “broke down the bedroom door and took” her phone away, documents said.

During Hahn’s first court appearance, the court found reason to charge him with murder, but the charges were eventually changed to assault of a child – domestic violence and interfering with domestic violence reporting, prosecutors said.

His bail was set at $5 million, and he is scheduled to appear in court on June 17, prosecutors said.

Federal Way is about a 20-mile drive south from Seattle.

This story was originally published June 5, 2025 at 3:39 PM with the headline "Dad tied 5-year-old to training toilet, beat her to death, WA officials say."