Jeju: A Jeju police officer arrested for wrongfully closing a missing person case that may have contributed to a woman's death has claimed to have done so to avoid an increased workload, police said Tuesday. The Jeju Provincial Police Agency made the announcement at a media briefing before referring the unidentified officer, who holds the rank of corporal, to prosecutors on charges including dereliction of duty and forgery.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the officer stated that he had been complacent because the missing person was an ordinary adult and falsely closed the case to avoid the burden of handing it over, as there were many things to manage if the case remained open. The officer is accused of closing the case of the missing woman, only identified by her surname Jang, in May without confirming her safety and deleting her information from the police's missing persons profiling system. Jang's body was found on the island on August 24.
The officer was also found to have prematurely closed another missing person case in July. The body of the missing person, a man in his 60s, was found on August 22. The officer initially claimed that he had contacted the missing persons but admitted that he had lied when the police investigation began.