Jang Mi-ran, 37, who went missing in Jeju. [Provided by the missing person's family]
Jang Mi-ran, 37, who went missing in Jeju. [Provided by the missing person's family]

Police are investigating how records related to a missing Jeju woman were entered into an internal database and then deleted around the time her disappearance was first reported.

The Jeju Provincial Police Agency said Friday that after the initial missing-persons report on Jang Mi-ran, 37, was filed last May, her records were registered in the management list of the "missing persons profiling" system before being deleted, and that an investigation is underway.

Police had been looking into the matter after noticing that no information about Jang's disappearance appeared in the internal missing-persons management system used to maintain the missing-persons list.

They subsequently confirmed that her records had been entered into the management list but were deleted when the case was closed.

Jang left her home in Hallim-eup, Jeju, sometime between late on May 12 and the early hours of May 13, after which contact with her was lost. She is believed to have gone out carrying only her mobile phone.

Her boyfriend filed a missing-persons report with police on May 15. The local police substation met with the boyfriend, who had filed the initial report, and searched nearby lodging establishments based on location data from Jang's mobile phone.

Officer A, who received the report, closed the case roughly two and a half hours after it was filed, on the grounds that contact had been made with the missing person. The search was also called off as a result.

Subsequent investigation found no record of any phone calls between Jang and Officer A — or anyone else — after the night of May 12, when she disappeared.

When Jang remained unreachable, her boyfriend tried to file another report with police on July 17, but it was not accepted. Her family said the report was turned away because of a note on file stating that Jang had asked that her whereabouts not be disclosed to her boyfriend.

A younger relative of Jang then filed a fresh missing-persons report from Seoul on July 19, prompting police to belatedly reopen the investigation.

Meanwhile, the Jeju Provincial Police Agency booked Officer A on charges of dereliction of duty on Friday and is investigating. Officer A still maintains that the case was closed after contact was made with Jang.


betterj@heraldcorp.com