Body believed to be missing Jeju woman found near lodging

Police found a body Monday believed to be that of Jang Mi-ran, who disappeared in May. Investigators say the officer handling her missing-person report falsely claimed to have contacted her and closed the case hours after it was filed.

An officer taking part in a search found the body at about 10:46 a.m. in the Hallim-eup area of Jeju City, the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Police Agency said. The site is about a 10-minute walk from the lodging where Jang had been staying.

Police will conduct forensic testing to confirm the identity and determine the cause of death. Police have not established how the person died.

Jang left the lodging sometime between the afternoon of May 12 and the morning of May 13 carrying only her mobile phone. A missing-person report was filed at 6:43 p.m. on May 15. She had moved to Jeju about a decade earlier and was living in Hallim-eup.

The officer closed the case at about 9:16 p.m., roughly two and a half hours after the report, after saying Jang was safe and did not want her location disclosed. Police later found no record of a call between the two. The search stopped that night.

Police arrested the officer Saturday on suspicion of dereliction of duty, falsifying and using official electronic records and obstruction of official duties by deception. Police applied Monday for a detention warrant.

The officer is also suspected of closing another missing-person case in July after telling the family that the person was safe but did not want their location disclosed. That person was found dead Saturday, a day after the family filed a new report.

Police are reviewing other missing-person cases handled by the officer.

BY HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]