Some police officers can't fathom why a colleague would falsify 200 missing persons cases and lie

“We honestly have no idea. Why on earth would he do something like that?”

When asked by a JoongAng Ilbo reporter what other police officers thought about the ongoing case of Bu, the police officer who is accused of falsifying some 200 missing persons cases and lying to family members, the overwhelming consensus was bafflement — and no semblance of empathy.

Bu is suspected of telling families that he contacted the missing individuals but that they "refused to share their locations with families," classifying them as dead in the police system and closing the case. The allegations came to light after the family of 37- year-old Jang Mi-ran claimed that she has been missing since May and Bu told the family that he talked to her.

However, investigators found no such record.

“Even if you gave him every benefit of the doubt and he said he brushed the case aside because most missing persons reports are resolved without incident, officers simply don’t go so far as to make up lies,” one officer who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo said.

“No matter how heavy the workload is, there is absolutely nothing to gain from rushing to close a missing persons case,” another said.

Biggest question: What was Bu's motivation?

Most confusing for both onlookers and insiders is that there really is no benefit to closing a case the way Bu did, according to officers. Bu was an officer in the missing persons unit at the Jeju Seobu Police Station and reportedly worked on the team for one year and five months.

Cases involving missing adults often end when the person voluntarily returns home or turns out to have simply gone somewhere without notifying family. Investigators are considering whether Bu falsely claimed to have contacted missing persons to close cases and then repeated the practice after earlier cases ended without serious consequences.

Police have narrowed their review to about 10 cases that Bu allegedly closed himself in the missing persons profiling system for the same reason he closed Jang’s case. Most of the individuals in those cases have since been located.

Speculation that he may have been attempting to reduce his workload was dismissed by other officers, who said leaving a case open wouldn't have substantially increased.

“Even if Bu had simply told the families, ‘We haven’t been able to reach the missing person,’ and left a record of that, his workload would not have increased significantly,” an unnamed police official told JoongAng Ilbo. “Yet he actively fabricated information and rushed to close the cases. I simply cannot understand why.”

Little to gain, much to explain

Bu’s alleged lie that he had made contact with Jang and his decision to close the case also caused officers from the Hallim Police substation who were searching for Jang at Hallim Port in Jeju to withdraw.

That same day, Bu reportedly deleted Jang’s information from the list of active cases in the police missing persons profiling system.

Police suspect Bu may have marked Jang as “deceased” before deleting her records. Fellow officers criticized the move as going far beyond proper procedure without any confirmation of her death.

“Bu was not even conducting the search himself, yet he effectively interfered with the search efforts of other officers who were doing their jobs,” a police lieutenant who requested anonymity said. “Missing women face a particularly high risk of becoming victims of crime. I cannot understand why he would do something so dangerous.”

Other officers were equally puzzled by the claims against Bu.

“Closing more missing persons cases does not improve an officer’s performance record,” another officer said. “No matter how you look at Bu’s actions, they are difficult to explain.”

Bu before the cases

Questions have also emerged over Bu’s conduct before and after the Jang case.

Jang’s family filed a second missing persons report with the Nowon Police Station in northern Seoul on July 19, which led authorities to reopen the investigation. Three days later, on July 22, allegations emerged that Bu had entered a women’s restroom without authorization at the police station where he worked.

Bu subsequently faced an internal investigation over alleged sexual misconduct and was relieved of his duties on Aug. 11.

In 2023, police also received a domestic violence report involving Bu, which resulted in an internal warning.

The revelations have raised broader questions within the police over how Bu came to handle 298 missing persons cases over the past year and five months.

Some police officers said the case should “serve as an opportunity to review the personnel system as a whole.”

Bu denies claims that he wrongfully closed the cases

Bu has retained an attorney and is actively contesting the investigation. He requested a court review of the legality of his arrest on Monday and was released the same day.

Bu has reportedly told investigators that he did actually contact the missing persons and denied falsely closing the cases.

The Korean National Police Agency placed the entire chain of command at the Jeju Seobu Police Station on administrative leave on Tuesday, including the station chief, citing a failure of oversight.

BY KIM JEONG-JAE, HEO JEONG-WON [[email protected]]