Nightmare of Jeonbuk National University Student Disappearance 20 Years Ago… 'Poor Initial Police Response' Recalled in Jeju

As it was revealed that Jeju police allegedly closed the initial missing person report on a person surnamed Chang (37) on their own three months ago, the 2006 disappearance case of a person surnamed Lee (29 at the time) in Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do, is being revisited 20 years later.

This is because both missing persons share commonalities: they are adult women, and the police's poor initial response missed the "golden time" to track their whereabouts.

Lee, a senior in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Jeonbuk National University, attended an end-of-semester gathering with a professor and about 40 department colleagues at a restaurant in Deokjin-gu, Jeonju, located about 1.5 kilometers away from her studio apartment in Geumam-dong, on June 5, 2006, and returned home at 2:30 a.m. the following day, the 6th.

Lee had completed six years of double majoring in statistics and fine arts at Ewha Womans University and transferred to the third year of Jeonbuk National University's veterinary college in 2003.

Only a single semester remained until her graduation.

For about an hour starting at 2:59 a.m. on the 6th in her studio apartment, Lee used her computer to search internet portal sites for the words "112" and "sexual harassment" for about three minutes.

Her computer was turned off at 4:21 a.m. that day, and no one has seen Lee since.

Two days later, on the 8th, friends from her department, wondering why Lee was not showing up at school, visited her studio apartment, but the front door was tightly locked.

The friends called the police and 119, broke the digital door lock of the front door, and entered the studio apartment, but only the pet dog Lee raised was holding its place there.

At this time, the police allowed "friends to clean up Lee's messy studio apartment," failing to secure initial evidence.

The friends not only cleaned the room neatly but also threw away items that were in the studio apartment, so when the police went back later, they could not obtain clues to find Lee's whereabouts.

What remained afterwards were a total of 10,000 search personnel mobilized, a 100 million won reward, and the desperate cries of a father searching for his daughter even after passing his ninetieth year.

In this recent disappearance of Chang, it was also revealed that Police Officer A, who was on night duty last May, closed the initial missing person report without entering it into the "Missing Children, etc. Profiling System."

There are even suspicions that Police Officer A closed the case on their own without even talking to Chang or confirming the missing person's safety.

According to the Jeju Provincial Police Agency, this is because a check of Chang's communication records confirmed there were no call records between Police Officer A and Chang.

The police, together with the Coast Guard and others, plan to conduct an intensive search around Hanrim Port in Jeju, which came up as the result of Chang's cell phone location tracking, mobilizing an average of about 140 people per day from the 20th to the 26th. However, it is reported that as of now, three months after the report, there are no livelihood reactions such as Chang's credit card usage, cell phone records, or hospital treatment history.

Chang has long straight hair, an estimated height of 158 cm, a thin physique, and was wearing a gold bracelet.

She is characterized by a charming way of speaking.

The disappearance of an adult woman has occurred again after 20 years.

Under the pretext that it was the disappearance of an adult, the police neglected initial response measures and repeated the poor response of the past.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.