Jeju police officer accused of falsely closing two missing person cases after one subject found dead

JEJU — A Jeju police officer is under arrest for falsely closing a case involving a missing woman and allegedly using the same false claim to close the file on another disappearance, which police are now reviewing after the second missing person was found dead on Saturday.

The officer, assigned to Jeju Seobu Police Station, was placed under emergency arrest Saturday on charges including dereliction of duty, falsifying and using falsified electronic public records and obstruction of official duties by fraudulent means, the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Police Agency said Sunday. The officer had already been booked and relieved of duty separately over allegations of entering a women's restroom at the police station on July 22.

The case at the center of the arrest involves the highly publicized missing persons case of Jang Mi-ran, which broke in mid-August, more than two months after she initially went missing. The initial search for Jang was halted after the officer allegedly claimed that they had contacted her and that she was safe, though it was later found that there were no phone records of the contact. 

The police are conducting a full review of cases handled by the officer over the past year while they were assigned to the missing persons investigation team. During the review, one additional case was identified by the family of another person who was reported missing on July 2.

After the family reported that they could not reach the person, the now-arrested officer told them that contact had been made and the person was safe. The officer then closed the case after telling the family that the person did not want their whereabouts disclosed to them.

But the family remained unable to contact the person. After seeing news reports about Jang's prolonged disappearance, the family filed another report with police, saying the person was still missing.

Police began tracking the person's location and conducting a search. The person was found dead in the Jeju city area on Saturday, over 50 days after the family's initial report. 

Police do not believe the death was connected to a crime, including homicide. At the family's request, police did not disclose the person's identity or the time nor the circumstances of the death.

The search for Jang was also similarly delayed by about three months after police cut short their initial response.

Jang's boyfriend reported her missing at around 6:43 p.m. on May 15, saying he could not reach her. Officers from the local police substation began searching accommodations and other locations around Hallim Port based on location data from Jang's mobile phone.

But police closed the case at around 9:16 p.m., about two and a half hours after the report, and stopped the search.

The officer is believed to have told superiors and the person who filed the report that contact had been made with Jang, that she was safe and that she did not want her whereabouts disclosed.

The explanation was similar to the one later given to the family in the other missing person case.

After the family remained unable to contact Jang, they filed another missing person report on July 19. The family later made their own flyers featuring Jang's photograph and physical description and distributed them on social media.

Police investigators found no record of a phone call between the officer and Jang. Police are investigating how the officer removed Jang from the police's missing persons profiling system without confirming her actual whereabouts.

The system is an internal police database that manages information on missing person reports, discoveries, search efforts and reasons for closing cases. The officer in charge can close a case directly.

The Korean National Police Agency is now moving to introduce a double-check procedure requiring a supervisor, such as a team leader or division chief, to review the information entered and the reason for closing a missing person case before giving final approval.

Jang, who has been missing for more than three months, was last seen on closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras leaving her lodging accomodations in Hallim-eup, Jeju Island, alone at around 10:15 p.m. on May 12. She had been staying there for an extended period. The investigation has faced difficulties because the footage at many locations has already been deleted after the expiration of the typical CCTV retention period of 30 days.

The signal from Jang's mobile phone was last detected near Hallim Port in Jeju at around 9:44 a.m. on May 16, four days after she left her lodging. Police have also found no signs of activity such as credit card transactions or immigration records.

Police and the Korea Coast Guard plan to deploy an average of about 140 personnel a day through Wednesday for an intensive search focused on the Hallim Port area, where Jang's mobile phone signal was last detected.

“We are continuing the search and investigation with all possibilities open,” a Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Police Agency official said. “We will deploy as many available personnel as possible and focus our efforts on finding Jang.”

BY CHOI CHOONG-IL [[email protected]]