Family of missing Jeju woman pleads for end to prank calls after contact details made public

The family of a woman in her 30s who has been missing in Jeju for more than three months is facing a new ordeal: a stream of prank calls after they made their contact information public in hopes of receiving tips on her whereabouts.

A relative of the missing woman, identified as Jang Mi-ran, posted a missing-person flyer on Instagram on Wednesday featuring her photo and asking the public for any information.

"The family is already going through an incredibly difficult time," the relative wrote, urging people to refrain from making prank calls, including calls with moaning sounds.

The relative also asked people to avoid posting politically charged comments or engaging in political arguments unrelated to the case. "We posted this solely to find our family member," the relative said.

Jang was last seen leaving her home in Hallim-eup, Jeju, late on May 12 or in the early hours of May 13. She is believed to have gone out carrying only her mobile phone.

Jang is 158 centimeters tall with a slender build. At the time of her disappearance, she had long straight hair and was wearing a gold bracelet. She is known for a playful manner of speaking.

Jang moved to Jeju 10 years ago and had been living with her boyfriend in Hallim-eup. When he woke up that morning, her boyfriend told her family that she had disappeared without saying where she was going.

The family filed a missing-person report with police on May 15. The officer who took the report, identified as Corporal B, told his supervisor he had made contact with Jang and closed the case. The family was told that Jang had asked that her boyfriend not be informed of her whereabouts.

When Jang remained unreachable, her boyfriend filed another report with police on July 17, but it was not accepted. The family said the report was rejected because of the earlier record stating that Jang had asked that her location not be disclosed to her boyfriend.

Jang's relative then filed a fresh missing-person report from Seoul on July 19, which finally prompted police to reopen the investigation.

According to the Jeju Provincial Police Agency on Thursday, a review of Jang's phone records found no evidence she had ever spoken with Corporal B, who had claimed to have contacted her when he closed the initial report in May. With more than two months having passed, footage from nearby closed-circuit television cameras that could have helped trace her movements has also been deleted.

Police also confirmed that Corporal B had not entered Jang's case into the missing-persons profiling system when the initial report was filed. Under rules governing the handling of missing-persons and runaway cases, officers may omit an entry if they determine the subject is not actually missing or if the report is deemed false — raising the possibility that Corporal B classified Jang's report as a false alarm.

Corporal B has said he reported the case to his supervisor before closing it, but whether that report was actually made has not been confirmed. Police are also looking into the possibility that he closed the case entirely on his own judgment.

The Jeju Provincial Police Agency booked Corporal B on Friday on charges of dereliction of duty and has launched an investigation. He is reportedly still maintaining that he made contact with Jang and closed the case on that basis.