Police investigating Jang Yun-gi failed to send 'real doll DNA report' to prosecutors

A DNA forensic report on a sex doll found in the studio apartment of Jang Yun-gi, 23, accused of murdering a high school girl, was not forwarded to prosecutors until six weeks after the results were received — due to a police error.

According to Yonhap News Agency, after arresting Jang and searching his residence, police found a sex doll with extensive damage concentrated around the neck and chest and sent it to the National Forensic Service for analysis.

The analysis found Jang's DNA on the doll. The report was delivered to police about four days after the case was transferred to prosecutors on May 14.

Police should have forwarded the report to prosecutors at that point but failed to do so. They later told media they had sent the report to prosecutors without realizing it had been omitted.

Police became aware of the omission only after media inquiries revealed that the forensic report on the doll was not included in the evidence list for Jang's trial. Police described the lapse as "a clerical error that occurred during data transmission between the forensic science and criminal justice systems."

As a result of the police error, the report was not transmitted until Wednesday — six weeks after the results had been received.

Prosecutors are reviewing whether to seek admission of the forensic findings as additional evidence in Jang's trial.

The doll itself was discarded by Jang's father when he cleared out his son's apartment, so only a video documenting the damage has been submitted as evidence in the trial.

It has also been confirmed that the door code to Jang's studio apartment — used by his father to enter and dispose of the doll on May 8, three days after the incident — was provided by the officer in charge of the case.

Jang's father cleared out the apartment after being contacted by the landlord while his son remained in detention.

Police said they followed standard "handover" procedures, having determined that the search and seizure of the residence was complete and that there was no need to preserve the scene.

It also emerged that on the day the doll was discarded, police facilitated a mobile phone call between Jang and his father in the presence of an investigator.

Jang had told police he threw his smartphone into a river but refused to disclose the exact location. Police said connecting him with his family was a standard investigative technique intended to persuade him to cooperate.

The Korean National Police Agency is conducting an internal audit into whether the series of actions — the failure to transmit the forensic report, the handover of the residence and the facilitated phone call — were handled appropriately.

Two agency inspectors launched an on-site review at the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station, which handled the Jang case, on Wednesday afternoon, examining the overall conduct of the investigation.