"Only 400m from Accommodation": Body Believed to Be Jang Miran Found After 104 Days, Sparking Investigation Negligence Controversy

Case Falsely Closed After Initial Report
Footage from 118 CCTV Cameras Deleted
Body Found Near Accommodation a Month After Re-Reporting

The body believed to be that of Jang Miran (age 37), who went missing in Jeju last May, was discovered 104 days after her disappearance, raising concerns about whether the police's initial response and search efforts were insufficient. The remains were found just about 400 meters away from the accommodation where Jang had stayed before disappearing.

According to Yonhap News on the 24th, a joint search team discovered a body presumed to be Jang at a coconut farm in Hallim-eup, Jeju City, at around 10:46 a.m. that day. It had been 104 days since Jang left her accommodation on the night of May 12.

The police discovered the body of Jang Miran, who had been missing for several months, at a palm tree farm in Suwon-ri, Hallim-eup, Jeju City on the 24th and are conducting an on-site investigation. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Jang's family filed a missing person report on May 15, three days later, but the initial response was delayed as Officer A falsely marked the case as closed.

The location where the body was discovered was 400 meters away from the accommodation Jang left, and although there were closed-circuit (CC)TV cameras near the accommodation, police had failed to locate Jang during that period.

In the Hallim-eup area, footage from 118 CCTV cameras was automatically deleted after the 30-day retention period following Jang’s disappearance, and it is reported that official police requests to view these recordings were only made 98 days after the presumed date of her disappearance.

Criticism has arisen that, had Officer A not falsely closed the case when the initial report was filed in May, the CCTV footage might have been preserved, possibly providing clues to quickly track Jang's whereabouts.

Even after Jang's family refiled her missing person report on July 19, it took about a month for her body to be found, leading to further questions as to whether the search was conducted promptly.

A police helicopter is conducting a search for the missing person, Jang Miran, around Hallim Port in Hallim-eup, Jeju City on the 24th. Photo by Yonhap News

The police conducted a large-scale search with around 140 personnel deployed daily near Hallim Port when the mobile phone location data pointed there. The location where the body was found is approximately 1 kilometer in a straight line from Hallim Port.

A police spokesperson explained to Yonhap News, "The place where the body was discovered is also within the coverage radius of the base station that serves Hallim Port, which was indicated by the mobile phone signal, and we have been conducting searches in that area." They added, "Since rural areas do not have base stations closely installed by telecom companies, the coverage radius for location data tends to be wide."

Although the police stated that the search began on July 19, after the report was refiled, the effort remained at the level of a routine missing person search for about a month. Only after a series of news reports did the police expand the search on August 20 by deploying helicopters and drones.

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