"Since Closing It as Death Ends the Case"... Missing Person Falsely Processed as 'Traffic Accident Fatality'

An investigation has revealed that Police Officer Boo, affiliated with the Jeju Seobu Police Station, who is accused of successively and falsely closing missing persons cases under his charge, deleted data related to Jang Mi-ran under the pretext of a "traffic accident fatality."

The Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit of the Jeju Provincial Police Agency confirmed that while closing Jang's missing person case, Officer Boo entered the reason as "traffic accident fatality" when deleting Jang-related data registered in the "Missing Persons Profiling Management List" system.

After receiving a missing person report from Jang's romantic partner at around 6:40 PM on May 15, Officer Boo closed the case at 9:16 PM, falsely claiming, "I got in touch with Jang, but she asked not to disclose her location."

The police believe that Officer Boo entered the fabricated reason of "traffic accident fatality" by exploiting the system's rule that entering "death" as the reason automatically closes the case.

It was also revealed that in a case involving a missing man in his 60s received last month (July 2026), Officer Boo closed the case after falsely recording that "the man's whereabouts had been discovered."

A body presumed to be Jang was found yesterday morning (August 24, 2026) in Hallim-eup, Jeju City, 104 days after she went missing, while the man in his 60s was found dead on August 22, 2026, in Songdang-ri, Gujwa-eup, Jeju City.

It was confirmed that the number of missing persons cases handled by Officer Boo during his 1-year and 5-month tenure reached 298.

The National Police Agency announced today (August 25, 2026) that it has placed all four members of the command line at the Jeju Seobu Police Station on standby pending orders regarding Officer Boo's false closures of missing persons cases.

The subjects are the former head of the Jeju Seobu Police Station at the time the case was first received, the current station head, the head of the detective division, and the missing persons team leader.

(Reported by Jung Da-eun | Video by Kim Hye-ju | Graphics by Lee Jung-joo | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.