Exclusive: Were Concerns About Suspect's Prior Knowledge of Victim Ignored?

[Anchor]

We previously reported that the National Police Agency's special investigation team has uncovered circumstances suggesting that Jang Yun-gi knew the teenage female victim before the incident. It has now been revealed that members of the initial investigation team had identified this information and reported to their superiors that "there might be an issue," but their concerns were effectively ignored.

Reporter Son Gijun has the story.

[Reporter]

"Circumstances have been discovered suggesting that Jang Yun-gi knew the teenage female victim before the crime." This was revealed by the National Police Agency's special investigation team during an interim briefing on the investigation yesterday (July 15).

The special investigation team explained that these circumstances were found on a spare mobile phone belonging to Jang Yun-gi and were identified as early as the initial investigation, yet no further verification was conducted.

If these circumstances are true, they serve as a crucial clue indicating that Jang Yun-gi may have been targeting the teenage victim before the crime took place.

The special investigation team has reportedly secured testimonies suggesting that members of the initial investigation team had discussed the matter after identifying these circumstances, questioning, "Isn't this problematic?"

They reportedly testified that they reported this to the then-investigation team leader, identified as Inspector A, but received no significant response.

The indictment for this case states that after spotting the teenage victim, Jang Yun-gi began tailing her in his vehicle. As the victim walked for 1.2 km, he drove in the same direction, stopping or getting out of the car a total of four times to check the victim's path.

The special investigation team is conducting additional investigations to verify whether these circumstances are true.

In response, Inspector A's side refuted the claims, stating that they were unaware of the existence of such information on the mobile phone and that they had not been asked a single question about it during the special investigation team's probe.

They further claimed that they had no knowledge of the relevant information until the police made the existence of these circumstances public.

(Video Editing: Shin Se-eun, Design: Park Tae-young)

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