Family's Anguish After Police False Case Closure: "What's the Point of Finding Him Dead?"

[Anchor]

The police officer who falsely closed the missing person case of Jang Mi-ran in Jeju has been found to have falsely closed another missing person report as well, and that missing person was ultimately found dead. The bereaved family members have expressed their deep anger, stating that despite their repeated requests for help, the police merely repeated that they should "find him on their own."

Reporter Jung Yong-gi from JIBS.

[Reporter]

People gathered at the Jeju Seobu Police Station.

The bereaved family members, who lost their family member about 50 days after the missing person report was falsely closed, visited the police station to hold them accountable.

[Bereaved Family Member: What good is it to find someone after they are dead? What are you going to do now!]

The missing person report for a man in his 60s was first received on July 2.

However, the case was dismissed on the very day it was reported.

Afterwards, the family visited the police station multiple times to ask for any recent whereabouts, but the only response they received was to "find him yourselves."

[Bereaved Family Member: They said (the police) heard him say, "I don't want to contact my family. Do not look for me. If you give out my number, I will report you for violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, Etc." When we asked how we were supposed to find him then, they told us to "find out privately."]

The person who closed the case without contacting the man and lifted the missing person status on the profiling system was the same police officer who falsely handled the case of Jang Mi-ran last May.

After belatedly hearing the news about Jang, the family filed a report again on the 21st, and he was found dead just one day into the search.

The police have urgently arrested the police officer in question, a senior patrol officer (kyongjang), and are expanding their investigation to determine if there are any other similar cases.

[Bereaved Family Member: It burns us up inside, but they spoke as if it wasn't their business, which was so frustrating. I don't know if the police are for us or for their own family members.]

As intensive searches enter their fourth day to find Jang, who has been missing for over three months, criticism surrounding the police is expected to intensify further with the revelation of this additional "false closure" case.

(Video Journalist: Yoon In-soo, JIBS)

Jung Yong-gi, JIBS
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.