[Anchor]

In Jeju, a woman in her 30s went missing, and although her family filed a missing persons report, the police arbitrarily closed the case, leaving her whereabouts unknown for three months. It has been revealed that the responsible police officer lied to the family, claiming to have spoken with the missing person, and submitted a false report to superiors.

Reporter Jung Yong-gi from JIBS.

[Reporter]

A woman wearing a hooded zip-up and long pants leaves her accommodation.

This is the last sighting of 30-year-old Chang Mi-ran, who went missing last May.

Since then, she has been out of contact for over three months, and no traces of daily life, such as financial transactions, have been found.

The family has even released her face to the public in an effort to find Chang.

[Family member of missing Chang Mi-ran: After tracking her location, the police told us, 'The missing person does not want to talk' and 'She asked not to be looked for.' That's when the reporting stopped.]

However, suspicions have been raised that a detective from the missing persons investigation team at the Jeju Western Police Station falsely reported in May that they had "made contact" with Chang.

This is because police investigations have found no records of phone calls between the responsible detective and Chang to date.

Chang, who lost contact after May 13, was reported missing two days later, but the police closed the case just three hours later.

There was no sign of her daily life for the next two months, and suspicions of a false case closure emerged after second and third missing persons reports were filed in mid-July.

The police have launched a public search around Hallim Port, where Chang's last movements were confirmed.

Thirty police officers were deployed, and missing person alert text messages were sent out.

The investigation is being expanded without ruling out the possibility of criminal harm.

[Boyfriend of missing Chang Mi-ran: I am so furious, and earlier my hands were shaking so much I couldn't do anything. I keep searching around Hallim Port and the coastline, thinking that if she fell into the sea, her shoes might have washed ashore, so I'm just walking along the beach right now.]

It was confirmed that the detective in charge of the case at the time was recently suspended from duty after being caught entering a women's restroom at the police station.

The police have booked the detective on charges of dereliction of duty and are investigating the overall handling of the missing persons case.

(Video by: Kang Myung-chul, JIBS)

Jung Yong-gi, JIBS