Body Believed to Be Missing Woman Found 104 Days After Disappearance

A body believed to be Jang Mi-ran, who went missing in Jeju last May, has been found 104 days after her disappearance.

The Jeju Provincial Police Agency stated that the body was found during a joint search near Hallim-eup, Jeju-si, at around 10:46 a.m. today (the 24th).

The body is in a state of advanced decomposition, making visual identification impossible, and police plan to confirm the identity and cause of death through forensics.

A police official said, "Judging from the current condition of the body, we believe the likelihood of criminal involvement is not high."

The location where Jang's body was found is about 1 kilometer away—roughly a 10-minute walk—from where she left her long-term lodging at around 10:15 p.m. on May 12.


Jang's boyfriend reported her missing to the Jeju Seobu Police Station at around 6:43 p.m. on May 15.

Immediately upon receiving the report, police tracked Jang's cell phone location and confirmed that she had subsequently moved to Hallim Port.

However, Police Officer A, who received Jang's missing person report, called Jang's boyfriend who made the report and said, "We have made contact with Jang and she is safe," adding, "However, Jang said not to disclose her location to her boyfriend or others."

Furthermore, about two hours and 30 minutes after the report at around 9:16 p.m. on May 15, Officer A closed the case and deleted data related to Jang from the "missing person profiling" system management list on the same day.

Police are investigating the possibility that the deletion of the missing person profiling management list entry meant entering "unidentified dead body," which signifies that Jang had died.

Due to Officer A's closure of the case, Hallim Substation police officers who had been dispatched to Hallim Port and searched following the 112 report at the time were all withdrawn, halting all search operations.

As Jang could still not be reached, her boyfriend attempted to file a report again on July 17, but Officer A's record stating "do not give contact information to the boyfriend" remained, preventing the report from being accepted.

Subsequently, Jang's family filed a re-report in Seoul on July 19, prompting the resumption of the search.

Police had been conducting searches since early this month around Hallim Port and other areas presumed to be her last known location, but failed to find Jang.


It was revealed that Officer A had also falsely closed a case involving a man in his 60s who was reported missing on the 2nd, in addition to Jang's case.

For this case as well, Officer A closed the case after telling the reporting family, much like in Jang's case, that "we made contact with the missing man in his 60s, but he said he does not wish to meet police officers and asked not to disclose his location to his family."

After the case involving Jang was reported in the media, the family of the man in his 60s re-reported the matter to the police on the 21st, and the missing man was found dead the following day, the 22nd.

After emergency arresting Officer A, police are investigating the exact motive and applied for an arrest warrant today.

Police are also investigating whether there are any additional cases managed by Officer A that were falsely closed.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.