The police have sparked controversy after listing Jang Mi-ran, who has been missing for over three months amid allegations of a "false case closure," as disabled in missing person alert information despite her having no disabilities.

Although the police explained that it was unavoidable due to urgency, the victim's family is furious, pointing out that the missing person alert was issued only after the family posted about it on social media.

Currently, personal details of the missing person posted on "Safety Dream," the missing persons support center website for children, women, and people with disabilities under the National Police Agency, state that Jang Mi-ran has a "disability."

On the 19th, the police issued a missing person alert containing Jang's personal details and subsequently uploaded related information to the Safety Dream website.

However, Jang is not registered as a person with a disability.

The police stated that they marked her as "disabled" in the alert details based on a statement from her boyfriend claiming that "Jang suffered from depression."

The police explained that under alert issuance criteria, missing person alerts cannot be issued for adult women who do not fall under the categories of dementia patients, individuals with disabilities, or children under 18, which is why they specified her as disabled.

The National Police Agency elaborated, "As the search for the missing person was prolonged, we inevitably sought cooperation from Jang's family and issued the alert as a missing person with a disability."

However, Jang Mi-ran's family is outraged.

This is because the search for the missing person was delayed for months due to allegations that Police Inspector A of the missing persons investigation team at the Jeju Western Police Station falsely closed the case, and the police only issued the missing person alert after Jang's cousin publicly released a self-made missing person flyer on social media.

In an interview with a media outlet, Jang's family vented their anger, saying, "If the police had registered the missing person as disabled and urgently issued an alert before the botched initial investigation became an issue, we could understand. But taking such measures belatedly only after drawing nationwide public outcry is like killing the family twice."

(Reported by Jung Da-eun | Video by Kim Na-on | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News)