Officer in Charge of Jang Miran Case Falsely Closed Another Case... Missing Man Found Dead After 51 Days

Police Confirm Death of Another Falsely Closed Missing Person Alongside Jang Miran
Officer in Charge of Both Cases Urgently Arrested and Under Investigation

In Jeju, the body of a missing male has been discovered, revealing that the officer in charge had closed the case, but the man had actually been missing for over 50 days. It was disclosed that the same officer was responsible for the case of Jang Miran (age 37) as well.

In the midst of inadequate responses such as false closure of missing person reports, police have been preparing a focused search at Hallim Port in Hallim-eup, Jeju City on the 20th to find 37-year-old Jang Miran, who has been missing for three months. Photo by Yonhap News

According to the Jeju Provincial Police Agency on August 23, the police discovered the body of Mr. A at an undisclosed location in Jeju while searching for the missing person. They found that Sergeant B, who had falsely closed the case of Ms. Jang, also falsely closed the missing person report for Mr. A. As a result, Sergeant B was urgently arrested.

Previously, Mr. A's family had reported him missing to the police on July 2. During the process, Sergeant B closed the case, claiming, "Mr. A is safe, but he does not wish to disclose his whereabouts." It was later revealed that he also removed information regarding Mr. A's disappearance from the missing persons profiling system.

However, after seeing the media reports about Ms. Jang's prolonged disappearance, Mr. A's family filed another missing persons report with the police, insisting that Mr. A was still missing. While reprocessing the report, the police confirmed that Sergeant B was the officer in charge at the time and verified that the case had been falsely closed.

The police then conducted a search for Mr. A, but he was found dead at an undisclosed location in Jeju on August 22, 51 days after his disappearance.

The police have arrested Sergeant B on charges of dereliction of duty, forgery and use of official electronic records, and obstruction of the execution of official duties by fraudulent means. They are currently investigating the circumstances around the false closure, as well as whether there are additional cases that were arbitrarily closed.

The investigation has also found that Sergeant B not only falsely closed the case of Ms. Jang, who is still missing, but also deleted related evidence from the missing persons profiling system by marking her as "deceased".

Meanwhile, regarding the initial report of Ms. Jang's disappearance filed at 6:43 p.m. on May 15, Sergeant B is accused of reporting that "contact has been made with Ms. Jang" and closing the case less than three hours later. He used a similar approach with Ms. Jang's boyfriend, saying "contact has been made with Ms. Jang and she is safe; however, she requested that her location not be disclosed to her boyfriend or others."

Nevertheless, after not being able to reach Ms. Jang for more than two months, the family filed another missingpersons report on July 19. Police then launched a large-scale search operation, mobilizing helicopters, drones, police dogs, and coast guard patrol boats in the area around Hallim Port in Jeju City, where Ms. Jang's phone signal was last detected. However, the authorities have faced strong criticism for belated investigation and search efforts.

In Ms. Jang's case, over three months have passed since the initial report in May, and key evidence, such as relevant CCTV footage, has since been deleted, making it increasingly difficult to trace her whereabouts. Consequently, there has been widespread public outrage and distrust over the police's lax procedures in handling adult missing persons cases—raising questions as to whether cases are being closed based solely on officers' claims that the person is "safe" without thorough investigation or proper search efforts, even when urgent calls for help from families are received.

To address these issues, the National Police Agency is promoting an improved system in which supervisors such as team leaders or department heads will review and confirm all input before missing person cases can be officially closed upon request.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.