Wasted Golden Time Through Lies... Poor Response Leads to Tragedy

[Anchor]

What makes the case of Jang Mi-ran even more critical is that the structural flaws failed to filter out the lies told by the officer in charge.

Reporter Je Hui-won looked into the police's poor handling of the case.

[Reporter]

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

About two and a half hours after the report, Officer Bu of the Jeju Western Police Station falsely explained to Jang's partner, "We got in touch with Jang, but she said not to reveal her location."

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

Officer Bu's lies continued, yet there was no one or any system to catch or correct them.

[Jang Mi-ran'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 managed to get on a call during the search, so we withdrew."]

On the day of the initial missing person report, the police only searched the Hallim Port area, located about 1.5 kilometers away from the accommodation where Jang was staying, for about two hours and thirty minutes.

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

In fact, inquiry investigations and basic movement tracking around the accommodation where Jang had stayed for about a year were not conducted at all.

[Owner of the Pension Where Jang Stayed: (The police came) starting in early August after the second report. It was when nearly three months had almost passed. (The CCTV footage) had all been erased.]

As Jang's whereabouts remained unknown even after that, a cousin living in Seoul reported the matter to the police again. Even then, the police attempted to treat it simply as a runaway case, asking, "Isn't she just an adult who left on her own?"

It was only after the bereaved family repeatedly pleaded that the police launched a reinvestigation, but the preservation period for CCTV footage, which is around a month, had already expired, leaving no clues to trace Jang's whereabouts.

When the family made Jang's photos public due to the stalled investigation, the police investigation finally went into full swing, and Jang was found dead.

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