▲ Police Officer Boo, who was arrested in connection with the Jeju "false closure of missing persons cases" scandal, is being transferred to the prosecutors' office from the Jeju Dongbu Police Station on Sept. 1.
Investigations have revealed that a Jeju police officer who falsely closed missing person reports did so out of the burden that failing to close the cases would increase his workload.
During an official briefing held today (Sept. 1) prior to handing Officer Boo over to prosecutors, the Jeju Provincial Police Agency announced, "Officer Boo stated that he took it lightly because the missing person was a typical adult, and that he closed the cases falsely due to the burden of handing them over and the heavy workload of things to take care of if left unclosed."
Five profilers (psychological analysts) deployed during the investigation into Officer Boo also identified "work-avoidant motives driven by fatigue from accumulated work burdens and heavy responsibilities" as the primary background for his offenses.
They further analyzed that "Officer Boo's evasive response and irresponsible attitude combined to lead to the false closure crimes."
Additionally, police stated that the reason Officer Boo falsely closed the missing person report of a woman in her 30s surnamed Chang and deleted her from the system by entering "traffic accident fatality" was because "he stated he did so out of fear that his false closure would later be found out."
On the other hand, regarding why he left a record in the system by entering "whereabouts found" for a man in his 60s surnamed A, police explained, "The 112 emergency call was received at 6:02 PM, but since the reporter had visited the police station earlier to consult with another staff member, he likely thought the deletion would be exposed."
Furthermore, the police announced that while working in the missing persons team at the Jeju Seobu Police Station from March of last year to July of this year, Officer Boo closed 298 cases, and they have confirmed 25 additional suspected cases of false closure aside from the two previously identified.
Among these, 10 cases show circumstances where reports were falsely closed without verifying the individuals' status, similar to the initial two cases, though police explained they have verified that all of those missing individuals are safe.
In the remaining 15 cases, even though the whereabouts of the missing persons were confirmed, reasons such as "traffic accident fatality" or "unattended death" were entered into the system to delete the records.
Officer Boo is accused of lying to the reporter that he had "gotten in touch" with Chang, a woman in her 30s reported missing last May, before arbitrarily closing the case and deleting Chang's data from the management list of the missing persons profiling system.
He is also suspected of falsely closing the missing person case of a man in his 60s surnamed A, received on July 2, using a method similar to the one used for Chang.
While searching for Chang, police became aware of Officer Boo's crimes and launched a preliminary investigation on August 11, followed by a formal booking on August 14.
Police discovered the body of Mr. A at a location in Jeju on the morning of August 22, and subsequently recovered a body presumed to be Chang in Hallim-eup, Jeju, on the morning of August 24.
On August 25, the Jeju District Court issued an arrest warrant for Officer Boo, who faces charges of dereliction of duty, falsification and uttering of official electronic records, and obstruction of official duties by fraudulent means.
Officer Boo initially claimed that he had "contacted the missing persons," but admitted that it was a lie once police investigations began.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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