Case of Falsely Closed Missing Persons Report in Jeju to Be Handed Over to Prosecution Soon

The case involving the false closure of a missing person report in Jeju is set to be transferred from the police to the prosecution this week.

According to the Jeju Provincial Police Agency yesterday (August 30), Police Inspector A in his 30s, attached to the Jeju Western Police Station, who has been arrested on charges of dereliction of duty, forgery of official electronic records and their utterance, and obstruction of official duties by deceit, is scheduled to be sent to the Jeju District Prosecutors Office within this week.

On August 24, the Jeju District Prosecutors Office appointed the head of Criminal Division 1 as the lead prosecutor for Inspector A's case and formed a dedicated investigation team comprising division members.

The prosecution stated that it will build a close cooperative system with the police from the early stages of the investigation and thoroughly investigate to clearly uncover the reality of the incident.

Once the case is handed over, the prosecution plans to closely examine Inspector A's motive for the crime, any additional instances of false closures, and whether there were further victims, based on the police investigation records.

The case has also exposed flaws in the chain of command, as it was revealed that superiors approved the case even after Inspector A's false closure.

In addition, lingering questions regarding whether there are other instances of false closures by Inspector A have not yet been fully resolved.

As a result, attention is focused on how far the prosecution's investigation will reach ahead of the abolition of the prosecution's supplementary investigation rights on October 2.

Inspector A is accused of falsely telling the reporter that contact had been made with a missing person surnamed Jang back in May, independently closing the case, and falsely deleting Jang's data from the missing person profiling system management list.

Inspector A is also suspected of using a similar method to falsely close a missing person case involving a man in his 60s on July 2.

Following the discovery of the body of the man in his 60s at an undisclosed location in Jeju on August 22, the police recovered the body of Mr. Jang in Hallim-eup, Jeju, on the morning of August 24.

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