A police officer who closed the initial missing-person report for Jang Mi-ran, 37, whose whereabouts have not been confirmed for more than three months in Jeju, was urgently arrested after it emerged the officer had also falsely closed another missing-person case.
According to police on the 22nd, the Jeju Provincial Police Agency urgently arrested Sergeant A of the Jeju Western Police Station at about 3:28 p.m. in Jeju City on charges of dereliction of duty, falsifying and using official electronic records, and obstruction of official duties by deception.
Police were said to have additionally learned on the 21st that Sergeant A closed another missing-person case handled on July 2 even though the person's whereabouts had not actually been confirmed. The Jeju Provincial Police Agency reportedly identified this while conducting a full review of missing-person cases handled by Sergeant A and secured custody.
The missing person in that case was reportedly found dead on the 22nd. Police do not see any indications related to a crime. Specific details, including the missing person's age, identity, and the place of discovery, were not disclosed in consideration of the bereaved family's position.
Sergeant A was already under investigation on suspicion of improperly closing Jang's missing-person case. The initial missing-person report for Jang was filed at about 6:43 p.m. on May 15. Based on Jang's cell phone location data, police canvassed lodging facilities in Hallim-eup, Jeju City, but the case was closed at about 9:16 p.m., roughly two hours and 30 minutes later.
At the time, Sergeant A was found to have entered into the 112 processing system that contact had been made with Jang. However, subsequent call records from Jang's cell phone reportedly showed no record of a call with Sergeant A or any other police officer after the disappearance.
There were also indications that records related to Jang had disappeared from the "missing-person profiling system," the police's internal missing-person management system. Police are investigating whether, in the process of closing the case, Sergeant A bypassed normal deactivation procedures and caused related materials to be deleted from the management list.
Jang left her home in Hallim-eup, Jeju City, on the night of May 12 and her whereabouts remain unknown. The family filed another missing-person report on the 19th of last month, and police are continuing the search centered on the Hallim Port area, where Jang's cell phone signal was last detected.
The Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit of the Jeju Provincial Police Agency plans to investigate how the missing-person cases handled by Sergeant A were processed, whether false reports were filed, and whether related computer records were altered.