[Anchor]
A police officer who falsely closed a missing persons report case has been arrested. Police are currently investigating similar cases, and notably, three of those cases still involve missing persons who cannot be reached.
Reporter Cho Min-ki has the details.
[Reporter]
The warrant review for Police Officer Boo (surname withheld) took place at 2:30 p.m. yesterday at the Jeju District Court.
The hearing lasted about an hour, and Officer Boo did not answer questions from reporters as he left the court and headed to the detention center.
[Police Officer Boo: (Do you admit to falsely closing the case?) ...... (Did you do it due to an input error?) ......]
The court issued an arrest warrant for Officer Boo at around 6:00 p.m., just about two and a half hours after the hearing ended.
The court explained the grounds for the arrest, citing "concerns over flight and the destruction of evidence."
Meanwhile, police are conducting a comprehensive investigation into 298 missing persons reports handled by Officer Boo.
Among them, it is reported that there are about 10 suspected cases where Officer Boo arbitrarily and falsely closed them, similar to the case of Jang Mi-ran.
Among these, it is known that three cases still involve missing persons who remain out of contact.
This raises the possibility that there may be three additional missing persons, in addition to the man in his 60s, surnamed A, who was found dead in Gujwa-eup, Jeju City, on August 22.
The Jeju Provincial Police Agency has repeatedly maintained its stance that it is "still assessing the current situation," which is expected to be clarified further through subsequent investigations.
Meanwhile, it was found that Officer Boo ignored the possibility of A's death even while being aware of it in the missing person case of Mr. A.
It is reported that Mr. A's bereaved family members, who filed the initial missing persons report on July 2, directly told Officer Boo that Mr. A left behind words saying, "I failed in business and have a lot of debt. Live well."
They had conveyed their concern that Mr. A might take his own life.
However, Officer Boo closed the case after falsely telling the bereaved family that "contact has been made with the husband."
Ultimately, following a re-report by the bereaved family on August 21 and subsequent police searches, Mr. A was found dead in a skeletal state.
(Camera Footage: Lee Sang-hak, Kang Myung-chul (JIBS) | Video Editing: So Ji-hye)
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