A Jeju police officer detained on charges of falsely closing missing-person cases, including that of Jang Mi-ran, 37, leaves Jeju District Court after a pretrial detention hearing on Tuesday. [Newsis]
A Jeju police officer detained on charges of falsely closing missing-person cases, including that of Jang Mi-ran, 37, leaves Jeju District Court after a pretrial detention hearing on Tuesday. [Newsis]

A Jeju police officer detained on charges of falsely closing missing-person reports, including that of Jang Mi-ran, has been found to have mishandled yet another missing-person case.

According to 112 emergency call records that the Korean National Police Agency submitted to the office of Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Sang-sik, Officer A of the Jeju Western Police Station received a report at around 6:02 p.m. on July 2 from the wife of a man in his 60s, identified as B. She said her husband had left home on June 28 and had not been in contact since.

B's wife told the officer that her husband had failed in business and was heavily in debt, and that he had told their child to "eat well and take care." The details she provided were enough to raise concern about his safety.

Despite this, Officer A closed the case without directly verifying B's whereabouts or wellbeing, recording him as safe.

B's family filed a new report with police on Friday after seeing media coverage that Jang's missing-person case had been falsely closed. The following day, Saturday, police found B dead in Gujwa-eup, Jeju.

Officer A also faces charges of falsely closing the case of Jang Mi-ran, who went missing in Hallim-eup, Jeju, in May.

After receiving the missing-person report from Jang's partner, Officer A allegedly told investigators he had reached Jang by phone but that she had asked him not to reveal her location — a claim investigators found to be false. He then closed the case and deleted Jang's records from the missing-persons profiling system.

A body believed to be Jang's was found Monday — 104 days after the missing-person report was filed — at a palm tree farm about 400 meters from the lodging where she had been staying.

Officer A has maintained his claim that he contacted the missing person and denied the charges of falsely closing the case.

Police are conducting a comprehensive review of all 298 missing-person reports that Officer A handled and closed.

Officer A was also booked on charges of violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes after a female officer caught him entering the women's restroom at the Jeju Western Police Station on July 22.

He denied the allegation, claiming he had entered out of urgent need and that there was no toilet paper in the men's restroom.

Investigators subsequently found unidentified fingerprints and palm prints on the ceiling and above the toilet stalls of the women's restroom he had entered. Police are conducting an investigation that includes identity verification.


betterj@heraldcorp.com