Exclusive: Police Returned Vehicle Used in Gwangju High School Girl Murder Case to Suspect's Father

[Anchor]

It has been confirmed that during the investigation into the murder of a high school girl in Gwangju, the police returned the vehicle used by the suspect, Jang Yoon-gi, to his father—a serving police officer—just one day after the crime, without even seizing it. They failed to secure the dashcam, a crucial piece of evidence to prove the crime. It was also revealed that after returning the car, the police even asked the father for the vehicle's location.

We begin our 8 o'clock news today, July 4, with an exclusive report by reporter Jeon Yeonnam.

[Reporter]

On May 5, the day the murder of the high school girl occurred, police conducted an emergency search of the SUV used by Jang Yoon-gi when they arrested him.

However, SBS investigation has confirmed that the following day, May 6, the police returned the vehicle to Jang's father, who is currently serving as a police officer.

They handed the vehicle back to the family just one day later, without even seizing the tools used by Jang to stalk the victim, the late Lee Chae-won, before murdering her.

Later, while speaking with the father, an inspector, the investigation team asked for the vehicle's location, implying they intended to check the dashcam.

Regarding why the vehicle was not seized, the police explained that they determined "the vehicle had no direct relevance to the crime" and that "there was no need to seize the vehicle as the dashcam SD card was not found."

It was also confirmed that in the search and seizure report written at the time, the police noted, "It was confirmed that there was no evidence to seize, so no seizure was made."

However, the prosecution later found a dashcam previously used by Jang in the trunk of the vehicle through an additional search and seizure, and secured audio of Jang related to a sex crime.

Furthermore, it was belatedly revealed that during the search of Jang's residence, the police only took two photos of two "real dolls" along with other evidence, and did not even include records related to the "real dolls" in the arrest warrant application before transferring the case to the prosecution.

(Video Editing: Won Hyeong-hee)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.