A police officer surnamed Boo, 34, has been indicted while in custody on charges of falsely closing the missing-person case of Jang Mi-ran, 37, in Jeju. Police are widening the investigation to include supervisors who oversaw the case at the time and members of the missing-persons investigation team.
The Jeju District Prosecutors' Office said on the 18th that Boo, a senior policeman, was indicted and detained on charges of dereliction of duty, forgery and use of public electronic records, violation of the Act on Promotion of Digitalization of Criminal Justice Procedures, and preparation and use of false official documents.
Prosecutors concluded that Boo falsely closed the case, judging without any particular basis that an adult missing person "must be alive somewhere," in order to avoid the burden of continuing to report an unresolved case to superiors and handing it over to colleagues.
A joint review to determine whether a crime was involved was also found to have been conducted only as a formality. If a missing person is not found within 12 hours of a report, a joint review must be held under the direction of the criminal affairs chief, but the Jeju Western Police Station at the time went no further than sharing a "112 emergency call incident processing sheet" in a group chat room.
The Jeju Provincial Police Agency has launched a preliminary investigation into eight people, including the former criminal affairs chief, the missing-persons team leader and team members, on charges including dereliction of duty.
