Proposals for Merged Investigation Repeatedly Ignored: Text Messages Revealed

[Anchor]

The prosecution's investigation results revealed that the National Office of Investigation (NOI) leadership twice rejected proposals from the Gwangsan Police Station investigative team to merge the murder and stalking sex crime cases involving Jang Yoon-gi. The prosecution also released text messages exchanged by the NOI leadership at the time as evidence.

Reporting is continued by reporter Shin Yong-il.

[Reporter]

These are the call records and text messages exchanged by the National Office of Investigation leadership during the investigation into the Jang Yoon-gi case, which were made public by the prosecution during its announcement of the investigation results today (September 2).

On May 7, two days after Jang Yoon-gi murdered a high school girl.

The head of the sexual violence division at the NOI sent a text message to an immediate superior pointing out that the initial response by the Gwangsan Police Station to a previous report of stalking against a foreign woman was inadequate.

The official added that it was regrettable they failed to swiftly handle Jang Yoon-gi's custody, and conveyed an opinion to a subordinate to review the appropriateness of the initial actions.

The following day, the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency also reported to the NOI its intention to merge the investigation into the stalking sex crime and the murder.

However, then-NOI Chief Park Sung-ju ordered a separate investigation, telling officials to keep the rape case quiet and out of the public eye, and the head of the NOI violent crimes division conveyed this directive to the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency.

Afterward, the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency repeatedly stated its position in favor of a joint investigation, noting that the leadership of the Gwangsan Police Station shared the same view. Yet, the head of the NOI violent crimes division issued another directive to investigate the cases separately, citing instructions from the head of the office, and the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency ultimately instructed the Gwangsan Police Station to pursue the two cases separately.

The prosecution concluded that the NOI leadership abused its investigative command authority on two occasions, thereby blocking the investigative team from conducting a merged probe.

[Shin Tae-hoon / Deputy Chief Prosecutor at Gwangju District Prosecutor's Office: By abusing their investigative command authority for purposes such as covering up police faults, avoiding public criticism, and evading reprimand, they obstructed the legitimate ongoing investigation.]

However, a special police task force investigating the case separately has attributed the unfair directives given to the Jang Yoon-gi investigative team not to the NOI, but to the leadership of the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station, meaning the investigative findings of the police and prosecution are expected to diverge.

(Photo courtesy of Yonhap News) (Video reporting: Jung Kyung-moon | Video editing: Park Ji-in | Design: Kim Ye-ji)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.