Golden Time Lost to Lies... Flawed Response Left Family in Grief

[Anchor]

Police Officer Bu's lies were not caught at any stage within the police organization. Furthermore, the police searched the wrong areas during the critical golden time of the missing persons case. The pain caused by false reporting and a botched response ultimately fell upon the surviving family members.

Reporter Je Hui-won examined how this case was handled.

[Reporter]

The initial missing person report was filed by Ms. Jang's romantic partner at 6:43 PM on May 15.

About two and a half hours after the report, Police Officer Bu of the Jeju Western Police Station falsely explained to Ms. Jang's partner, "We made contact with Ms. Jang, but she asked us not to reveal her location."

Subsequently, Officer Bu deleted Ms. Jang's case from the internal missing persons management system and falsely entered "traffic accident casualty" as the reason.

Even as Officer Bu's lies continued, there was no person or system to catch or correct them.

[Ms. Jang's boyfriend (on the 19th): When I asked, 'Did you see her face in person, or did the substation staff see her?' they said, 'We got in touch during the search and withdrew.']

On the very day of the initial missing person report, the police searched only the area around Hallim Port, about 1.5 km away from the accommodation where Ms. Jang had been staying, for about two hours and thirty minutes.

The reason was that the last location information from Ms. Jang's mobile phone was recorded in this area. However, the place where Ms. Jang's body was actually found was a palm tree farm about 400 meters away, a five-minute walk from the accommodation.

Inquiries around the accommodation where Ms. Jang had stayed for about a year and basic tracking of her movements were not conducted at all.

[Owner of the pension where Ms. Jang stayed: (The police came) starting from early August after the second report. It was when nearly three months had almost passed. (The CCTV footage) had all been deleted.]

As Ms. Jang's whereabouts remained unknown even after that, her cousin living in Seoul reported the case to the police again. Even then, the police tried to treat it as a simple runaway case, asking, "Isn't she a grown adult who just left home?"

They only launched a reinvestigation after the bereaved family repeatedly pleaded, but by then, the retention period for CCTV footage—which is about a month—had passed, leaving no clues to verify Ms. Jang's whereabouts.

When the family made Ms. Jang's photos public due to the lack of progress in the investigation, the police investigation finally began in earnest, and Ms. Jang was found dead yesterday, 104 days after she went missing.

(Camera: Lee Sang-hak | Video Editing: Lee Hong-myung | Design: Park Tae-young, Kim Ye-ji)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.