'Why did you do it?' — Jeju officer arrested over falsified missing-person cases refuses to speak

Police are intensively investigating the motive of Officer A, a junior officer attached to the Jeju Western Police Station who was arrested on charges of falsely closing a missing-person case.

Officer A left the detention facility at Jeju Eastern Police Station on Sunday afternoon and was escorted to a waiting vehicle. Reporters pressed him on why he had falsely closed the case, but he kept his head down and said nothing as he boarded the transport vehicle.

"We are investigating Officer A's motive for falsely closing the missing-person case, among other matters," a police official said, adding that the location of the interrogation could not be disclosed.

Police arrested Officer A on an emergency basis at around 3:29 p.m. Saturday on charges of dereliction of duty, forgery of official electronic records, uttering of forged records, and obstruction of official duties by deception. He is suspected of falsely closing the case of Jang Mi-ran, 37, a woman reported missing in Jeju. Investigators have since confirmed he also falsely closed at least one other missing-person case.

The emergency arrest period for Officer A runs through Monday afternoon, after which police are expected to apply for a formal arrest warrant. Police plan to conduct a swift investigation and hold a press briefing sometime next week.

Officer A is accused of lying to the person who filed the missing-person report for Jang — telling them contact had been made with her — before closing the case on his own and deleting Jang's records from the missing-persons profiling system's management list. The initial report was filed in May.

He is also suspected of using a similar method to falsely close a separate missing-person case on July 2. Jang has been missing for more than three months, and a large-scale search is ongoing. The other missing person was found dead at an undisclosed location in Jeju on Saturday.