Family accuses Jeju police of mishandling case after missing man found dead
The family filed another missing persons report after seeing news about its assigned police officer's reportedly mishandled case involving Jang Mi-ran, who had been missing for months
The son of a man who was found dead 51 days after going missing demands accountability at Jeju Seobu Police Station on Aug. 23.JOONGANG ILBO
The relatives of a man who was found dead on Jeju Island nearly two months after he went missing accused police on Sunday of falsely telling them that he was alive and well, delaying a search that might have saved him.
“We trusted the police and waited, but we didn’t get the help that we needed,” the family said in a press conference at the Jeju Seobu Police Station. The man’s body was discovered on Saturday, 51 days after his disappearance.
“The officer told us that my father was safe after we reported him missing on July 2,” the man’s son said. “I was still worried and went back to the police twice, but each time, we were told that my father did not want his whereabouts to be disclosed. We believed [them] and waited.”
The police officer later told the family that their father was not answering his phone and that they should search for him themselves.
The son demanded a probe into how police handled the initial report and whether they conducted a proper search.
“What were the police doing while his body was left to decompose beyond recognition?” another family member said. “If the case was mishandled, those responsible must be held accountable.”
Jeju police search for traces of the missing Jang Mi-ran on Aug. 23.NEWS1
The officer assigned to the case received the family’s missing persons report on July 2. Soon after, the officer called the family and falsely claimed that he had contacted the father and confirmed that he was safe. The officer effectively closed the case on false grounds and removed it from the police’s missing persons profiling system.
“We filed another missing persons report on Friday after seeing news about a similar case that had been falsely closed,” the son said, referring to that of Jang Mi-ran, who had been missing on the island for months. “A day later, a body believed to be my father was discovered.”
The same officer was also found to have falsely closed Jang’s case and deleted related information from the profiling system.
Police took the officer into emergency custody on Saturday and are investigating whether other missing persons cases were improperly handled.
They are also conducting an extensive search for Jang, who has not been seen for more than three months since leaving her home in Hallim-eup on the night of May 12.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
