Are There More Falsely Closed Missing Persons Cases? Police Investigate 200 'Self-Closed' Cases

Suspicion is growing that there may be additional victims of falsely closed missing person cases in Jeju, beyond the cases of 37-year-old Jang Mi-ran and a man in his 60s.

This concern arises because hundreds of missing person reports were solely closed by the responsible police officer, and furthermore, a case has emerged where a missing person whose case was falsely closed was later found dead.

According to the Jeju Provincial Police Agency today (the 24th), investigations revealed that aside from the cases of Jang Mi-ran (37) and the man in his 60s, most of the approximately 200 missing person reports handled by Police Officer A were closed solely by Officer A, in what are called 'self-closed' cases.

Authorities are particularly focusing on investigating whether he falsely reassured reporters before closing the cases under false pretenses.

Police are attempting to contact the missing persons and those who filed the reports regarding these missing cases to ascertain the exact circumstances.

Police Officer A, who is suspected of falsely dismissing missing person reports, worked in the missing persons unit for about 1 year and 5 months until the 11th of this month, when he was relieved of his duties due to suspected sex crimes within the police station.

Both the currently uncovered missing person case of Jang and the case of the man in his 60s—who was found dead in a skeletal state on the 22nd—share the commonality that Officer A received the reports during his night shifts.

During night shifts, when a missing person report comes in, a separate night duty log is written in addition to the missing persons profiling (police missing persons management) system to report events that occurred overnight to superiors the following day.

This serves as another safeguard to prevent individuals on night duty from arbitrarily handling cases since only one person works the night shift.

However, there is currently no way to deter or prevent a night duty officer from falsely writing the duty log while working alone.

The number of missing adult cases involving individuals aged 18 and older in the province stood at 944 in 2023, followed by 814 in 2024, and 786 in 2025.

This year, 370 cases were received by the end of last month, bringing the total number of reports since 2023 to 2,914.

This is more than double the 1,341 missing child cases involving those under 18 during the same period.

As for adults who remain unfound since the missing person reports were filed, the number reached 15, which is five times higher than the 3 children under 18 (3 children).

Bereaved families in this case are pouring out criticism and resentment, asking whether their loved ones could have been found safely if the police had not falsely closed the missing person cases and had continued search operations.

As media reports on Jang's missing person case starkly exposed the sloppy handling of missing persons by the police, families whose missing relatives have still not been found are anxiously flooding the police with inquiries out of deep anguish.

An official from the police stated, "Recently, inquiries from families of missing persons asking whether their loved ones have been found yet have been continuously coming into the police station out of desperation."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.