Woman classified as 'high-risk victim' killed after police ignored unanswered monitoring call

A woman in her 60s whom police had classified and were monitoring as a "high-risk case victim" was killed by her estranged husband. Police took no follow-up action after she failed to answer a monitoring call on the day of the killing.

According to Yonhap and the North Jeolla Province Police Agency, the victim, identified only as A, did not answer a police monitoring call at around 5:43 p.m. on Tuesday — the day her husband killed her. Police neither called again nor visited her home to check on her safety.

A had filed seven complaints with police since April, saying her estranged husband, identified as B, had been threatening her. Last month she filed an additional report saying she had received dozens of text messages from B and was frightened. Police booked B on charges of violating the Stalking Punishment Act and classified A as a high-risk case victim.

Police believe B killed A sometime between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Tuesday — a window that overlaps with the time the monitoring call was placed.

Critics say police should have taken more active protective measures given that A had been designated a high-risk victim under their own monitoring system. The failure to make even a follow-up call after she did not answer has drawn sharp criticism of the police response.

The Korean National Police Agency has regulations requiring monitoring of high-risk case victims. However, no specific protocol exists for what officers should do if a victim does not answer a monitoring call.

A North Jeolla Province Police Agency official said that when a victim does not answer, officers are expected to call again after a short interval or send a text message, but that the officer in charge had not done so because they were off duty the following day. "We will work to establish a protocol for cases where calls go unanswered," the official said.