A teenage male who made 17 prank calls and sent false tip-off text messages to the family of a woman in her 30s who has been missing in Jeju for more than three months has been caught by police.
The Korean National Police Agency National Office of Investigation (NOI) said on the 22nd that it apprehended a teenage male, identified as A, on suspicion of violating the anti-stalking law for repeatedly sending text messages and making calls to the contact number the missing person's family made public in connection with the case of the missing woman in her 30s in Jeju.
Police said A sent a text message to the missing person's family implying that if they let him hear moaning sounds he would help find the missing person, and made calls, contacting them 17 times in total. To prevent further contact, police also issued an emergency measure banning him from access using telecommunications.
Secondary harm aimed at the missing person's family is said to be continuing online as well. Some online communities are posting unverified claims related to the missing person or posts that mock or disparage the family. Police are strengthening monitoring of related posts and plan to delete or block them and pursue legal responsibility if illegality is confirmed. Depending on the circumstances, prank calls or online mocking can constitute insult, defamation, or violations of the anti-stalking law.
The missing person, Jang Mi-ran, 37, left her home in Hallim-eup, Jeju, on the night of May 12 and her whereabouts remain unknown. The first missing person report for Jang was filed on the 15th of the same month. However, it emerged that Police Sergeant A of the Jeju Western Police Station, who was in charge at the time, closed the case about two hours and 30 minutes after the report, saying Jang had been reached, triggering criticism over a botched initial response. Later, after checking Jang's mobile phone communication records, it was found that there was no record of a call with police after she left home. Jang's family filed another missing person report on the 19th of last month.
There were also signs that materials on Jang entered into the internal police missing-person profiling system were deleted during the case closure process. The Jeju Provincial Police Agency is investigating the exact circumstances on the possibility that Sergeant A, who has been booked on suspicion of dereliction of duty, deleted the materials. It is also known that a full review is underway of other cases handled by Sergeant A on the missing-persons team.
Police belatedly are searching the area around Hallim Port with the Korea Coast Guard, deploying helicopters, drones, and divers. However, it is reported that the investigation is facing difficulties as considerable time has passed since the disappearance and some nearby closed-circuit (CC)TV footage has been deleted.