Missing Person Claimed to Be 'Reached' Listed as 'Casualty' in System… Crucial Clues Missed

It has been confirmed that the police investigation was delayed after initially missing the circumstances surrounding the deletion of data from the Missing Person Profiling System—a crucial clue to uncovering the allegations against the police officer responsible for the false closure of the missing person case.

According to the Jeju Provincial Police Agency on the 27th, the police received a second report on July 19 following the initial missing person report filed on May 15 regarding a woman in her 30s surnamed Chang.

Officer A, who was on night duty at the time of the initial missing person report, closed the case about two hours and 30 minutes after receiving it, at 9:16 PM, by falsely telling the reporter, "We made contact, but she does not want to disclose her location."

Upon closing the case, Officer A also deleted Chang's data from the Missing Person Profiling System (police missing persons management system) management list.

During this process, Officer A selected the code for "traffic accident casualty" within the Missing Person Profiling System.

Selecting a type code for special circumstances, such as an unidentified body or traffic accident casualty, in the Missing Person Profiling System results in the deletion of related data from the system management list.

This created a contradictory situation where the case was closed under the premise that she was "alive," yet "deceased" was entered into the Missing Person Profiling System.

However, the police failed to detect these unusual circumstances in a timely manner even after the re-reporting on July 19.

This was because the check on the Missing Person Profiling System was delayed as they relied solely on Officer A's statement that "contact was made with the missing person."

Consequently, the pre-indictment investigation into Officer A was only initiated on the 11th.

The exact timing of when the police identified the discrepancy in the missing person profiling list has not been confirmed.

However, the police only stated on the 21st, "We are investigating as circumstances were discovered where data related to Chang on the Missing Person Profiling system management list was entered and then deleted at the time of the initial missing person report for Chang."

Currently, the National Police Agency is questioning command responsibility for the handling of this case while conducting an inspection to ascertain facts related to command and supervisory responsibilities.

Jeju Provincial Police Agency Chief Ko Pyung-ki also admitted during a Q&A session with reporters that day, "This part appears to be negligence."
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.