[Anchor]
Police officer Boo, who has been arrested on charges of falsely closing missing persons cases in Jeju, including the case of the late Mr. Chang, is understood to have either deleted or failed to enter a total of 63 cases in the system. Police stated that officer Boo is gradually providing statements regarding why he committed these acts.
Reporter Jeong Jiyeon has the details.
[Reporter]
It is reported that police officer Boo of the Jeju Seobu Police Station, who was arrested on the 25th, has begun to speak out about why he falsely closed missing persons cases.
Hong Seokki, head of the National Office of Investigation, stated during a press conference yesterday (the 31st), "We are verifying whether the statements made by officer Boo regarding his motive for the crime are true."
Officer Boo is accused of falsely closing a case by inputting it as a "traffic accident death" in the system without checking the safety of Mr. Chang—whose missing person report was filed on May 15—despite having checked the location of Mr. Chang's mobile phone seven times.
This occurred just two and a half hours after the missing person report was received.
Even on July 2, he checked the mobile phone location of a man in his 60s, but closed the case just about five hours after receiving the missing person report by entering false information stating that "contact was made and he has no intention of committing suicide."
The man in question was found dead in Songdang-ri, Jeju City, where his mobile phone location had been identified 51 days after the missing person report.
The number of missing persons cases self-closed by officer Boo since March of last year stands at 298, accounting for approximately 30 percent of all cases in Jeju.
Police recently confirmed that out of these, 63 cases were either never entered into the missing persons profiling system or were deleted.
The Jeju Provincial Police Agency will hold a briefing today to announce the results of the investigation so far.
Police explained that regarding the management and supervisory responsibilities of the command chain, which are currently being handled through internal inspection, formal investigations could be initiated depending on the specific circumstances.
(Video Editing: Yu Mira, Design: Lee Gajin)
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