[Anchor]
We continue with breaking coverage on the false closure of a missing person case in Jeju. Officer Boo, who repeatedly and arbitrarily closed the missing person case, consistently claimed that he had spoken directly with the missing person, yet no phone records have been found anywhere. As police focus their investigative efforts on uncovering the motive for the crime, the head of the Jeju Provincial Police Agency has announced that authorities will review all missing person cases in the Jeju region from scratch.
This report is by Je Hui-won.
[Reporter]
Police are intensively questioning Police Inspector Boo, who was arrested the day before yesterday (August 25) on charges including dereliction of duty, regarding the reasons behind the false closure of the missing person case.
Uncovering why Inspector Boo committed such acts—especially given that he gained no discernible practical benefit from the false closures—remains one of the core focal points of this investigation.
Police stated that although Inspector Boo consistently claimed he spoke directly with the missing person, autopsy results indicate the missing person is estimated to have died even before the missing person report was filed.
No records of phone calls between Inspector Boo and the missing person were found on either of their mobile phones.
In response, Inspector Boo has denied the charges, claiming that he "does not remember what communication method he used to talk to the missing person." Police stated that while they have checked all communication devices, they have not found any clues to support Inspector Boo's claims so far.
Inspector Boo's actions are also difficult to comprehend, as he claimed to have verified Mr. Jang's safety through phone calls yet closed the case by entering "traffic accident fatality" into the missing person profiling system.
It was also revealed that after a new missing person report regarding Mr. Jang was filed, Inspector Boo checked Mr. Jang's mobile phone location a total of four times.
Despite having personally entered that Mr. Jang died in a traffic accident, he checked the location from 5:16 PM on June 20 to 2:20 PM the following day.
Police plan to deploy criminal profilers to clearly determine the motives behind Inspector Boo's actions.
Thirteen days after launching the investigation into the police officer in charge of the missing person case, the Jeju Provincial Police Chief bowed his head in apology to the bereaved family and the public.
[Ko Pyung-ki / Head of Jeju Provincial Police Agency: I bow my head and offer my deepest apologies to the residents of the province and the citizens who must have felt great disappointment and anxiety.]
Chief Ko further announced that police will conduct a full-scale reinvestigation into all missing person cases within the province.
(Video Reported by Go Seung-hwan / JIBS, Video Edited by Ahn Yeo-jin, Design by Seo Hyun-jung and Kim Min-young)
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