Another Body Found in Jeju... Growing Doubts Over '298 Handled Missing Person Cases'

[Anchor]

The police officer in charge of the Jang Mi-ran case has handled a total of 298 missing person reports so far. Including this case, it appears necessary to reexamine from scratch how the police have handled adult missing person cases.

Here is a report by reporter Kwon Min-kyu.

[Reporter]

Police Officer A of the Jeju Seobu Police Station, who falsely handled the missing person case of Jang Mi-ran, was found to have handled a total of 298 missing person reports, including Jang's case.

Police Officer A had worked in the missing persons team for about one year and five months until the 11th, when he was suspended from his duties.

[Yoo Jae-seong / Acting Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency: As I have been briefed, 298 cases were handled. Through a full inspection, we will more clearly check whether there are any similar cases....]

Among the approximately 70,000 adult missing person reports filed with the police last year, 99.7% of the cases were concluded without full-scale searches.

Only 0.3% of the cases remain unresolved with the missing status maintained, raising growing doubts over whether missing person cases have been handled properly.

[Professor Park Dong-gyun / Department of Police Administration, Daegu Haany University: There could be cases where they actually occurred but are not captured in the (missing person) statistics. The actual number might be far greater than what is currently being grasped....]

Current laws regarding missing persons focus on preventing the disappearance of children under 18, dementia patients, and individuals with intellectual disabilities. Critics point out that adults aged 18 and older are referred to as 'runaways' who left home voluntarily, which can lead to complacent attitudes among the police.

[Professor Yeom Gun-woong / Division of Police and Fire Administration, U1 University: Families of (missing persons) place more weight on the possibility that they vanished due to someone else. However, the police currently begin their investigation from the opposite side of that presumption.]

The 'Missing Person Profiling System' introduced in 2011 is also pointed out as problematic because the officer in charge can close a case without approval from a superior, leaving no way for another officer to filter out a single police officer's manipulation of a case.

President Lee Jae-myung ordered a thorough investigation into the overall police investigation process regarding this missing person case.

[Kang Yu-jung / Senior Presidential Spokesperson: The President expressed his profound dismay and regret. He instructed that fundamental reform measures as well as internal police reform plans be prepared.]

In Jeju, bodies presumed to be missing persons were successively discovered today (the 24th) in a valley in Aewol-eup and off the coast of Jocheon-eup, bringing the total number of missing bodies found in just two days since the 22nd to four.

The National Police Agency initiated an inspection today into the false closure process of the Jeju missing person case and the overall command and management.

(Video Editing: Lee Hong-myung, Design: Hwang Se-yeon)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.