Golden Time Lost to Lies... Family Left to Cry Over Botched Response

[Anchor]

Officer Bu's lies were not filtered out at any stage within the police internal system. Furthermore, the police searched the wrong places during the critical golden time of the missing person case. The pain caused by false reporting and a botched response ultimately fell upon the remaining family members.

Reporter Je Hui-won traced the handling process of this case.

[Reporter]

The missing person report was first filed with the police by Mr. Chang's romantic partner at 6:43 PM on May 15.

About two and a half hours after the report, Officer Bu of the Jeju Seobu Police Station falsely explained to Mr. Chang's partner, "We made contact with Mr. Chang, but she asked us not to reveal her location."

Subsequently, Officer Bu deleted Mr. Chang's case from the police internal missing person management system and falsely recorded the reason as a "traffic accident casualty."

Although Officer Bu's lies continued, there was neither a person nor a system to catch or correct them.

[Mr. Chang's Boyfriend (on the 19th): When I asked, 'Did you see her face in person, or did the substation staff see her?' they said, 'We got a call during the search, so we withdrew.']

On the day of the initial missing person report, the police only searched the area around Hallim Port, located about 1.5 km from the accommodation where Mr. Chang stayed, for about two hours and thirty minutes.

This was because the last location information from Mr. Chang's cell phone was registered in this area, whereas the place where Mr. Chang's body was actually discovered was a palm tree farm about 400 meters away, a five-minute walk from the accommodation.

In fact, questioning around the accommodation where Mr. Chang had stayed for about a year and basic movement tracking were not conducted at all.

[Owner of the Pension Where Mr. Chang Stayed: (The police came) starting in early August after the second report. It was when nearly three months had passed. (The CCTV footage) had all been deleted.]

As Mr. Chang's whereabouts remained unknown even after that, a cousin living in Seoul reported the case to the police again, and the police attempted to treat it simply as a runaway case, saying, "She is a grown adult, did she just run away?"

A reinvestigation was initiated only after the bereaved family repeatedly pleaded, but the retention period for CCTV footage, which is just over a month, had passed, leaving no clues to confirm Mr. Chang's whereabouts.

When the family released Mr. Chang's photos due to the lack of progress in the investigation, the police investigation finally went into full swing, and Mr. Chang was found dead yesterday (the 24th), 104 days after going missing.

(Camera Reporter: Lee Sang-hak | Video Editor: Lee Hong-myeong | Design: Park Tae-young, Kim Ye-ji)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.