Other Contacts Found, But Why Not the Missing Person? "Too Calculated to Be Just Negligence"

Why Did Police Inspector Boo Falsely Close Missing Person Cases?

In yesterday's (September 19) broadcast of SBS's "Unanswered Questions" (hereafter "Unanswered"), the show tracked Police Inspector Boo, who falsely closed a missing person case in Jeju Island.

On May 12, 36-year-old Ms. Chang went missing after leaving home. Although her family and boyfriend filed a missing person report, she was found dead as a skeleton 104 days later in a palm tree forest in Hallim-eup, Jeju City. It was revealed that this palm tree forest was located just 400 meters away from her accommodation, causing profound shock.

Ms. Chang's boyfriend had filed the missing person report due to her absence. The officer in charge at the time was Inspector Boo from the Missing Persons Investigation Team at the Jeju Seobu Police Station. He called back 2.30 hours after receiving the report, claiming he had made contact with Ms. Chang. He stated that Ms. Chang did not want her location revealed to her boyfriend, and therefore notified them that the case would be closed.

However, this was a lie. Days after the missing person report was filed, no one had been able to reach Ms. Chang. When her family filed another missing person report, Inspector Boo's lies were exposed.

Police had never actually spoken with Ms. Chang following her disappearance, and Inspector Boo had marked Ms. Chang as deceased in the internal police missing persons system to delete the report record.

Yet, this was not the only case Inspector Boo falsely closed. In June, Inspector Boo handled a missing person report for a man in his 60s in the exact same manner. Beyond this, Inspector Boo's incomprehensible actions of manipulating details or falsely closing as many as 25 missing person reports came to light, sparking widespread public outrage.

Furthermore, on the day Ms. Chang's remains were found, police announced that the cause of death appeared to be hanging, suggesting she had taken her own life. This hasty announcement was made even before an autopsy had been conducted.

However, because Ms. Chang was found in a skeletal state, an autopsy could not determine a definitive cause of death, nor were there clear clues to infer why she died. Nevertheless, the police rushed to announce a cause of death.

Ultimately, these police actions raised numerous suspicions. Along with doubts surrounding the cell tower locations and CCTV sightings from the early days of the disappearance, questions were raised as to whether it was even possible to hang oneself by tying a shoelace to a palm tree.

In response, the production team conducted an experiment and confirmed that the possibility of incomplete hanging could not be ruled out. However, it was difficult to judge whether it was suicide or murder based solely on this result. Therefore, the broadcast emphasized that hasty inferences and deductions must be avoided.

Police announced regarding Inspector Boo, "It is estimated that accumulated work pressure and fatigue from heavy responsibilities served as the main background, combining with the suspect's evasive and irresponsible attitude to lead to the crime of false closure driven by work negligence."

However, it seemed puzzling to attribute this merely to a lazy disposition, especially since in the case of the missing man in his 60s, Inspector Boo showed a high degree of calculation by finding and using contact information from other case records.

A crime expert commented on this, saying, "This is not an act driven by avoidance, escape, impulse, or an unconscious loss of control. These were highly selective, active, and intentional actions. He deliberately made it so that the missing persons could not be found, and we must uncover why Inspector Boo committed such acts."

The expert went on to draw attention by stating, "When someone uses their position or authority to commit criminal acts to gain a sense of superiority and satisfaction as if they have become God, it is called the 'God complex.' The most representative example is Harold Shipman in the UK, who injected poison to kill patients he judged unworthy of living."

Finally, the broadcast emphasized that while Inspector Boo turned numerous missing person cases into unsolved mysteries, he was not the sole reason these cases ended in suspicious deaths.

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