South Korea cop closed missing persons cases to avoid work: Police

A South Korean police officer surnamed Bu was arrested after falsely closing more than two dozen missing persons cases to avoid additional work, authorities said, including that of 37-year-old Jang Mi-ran, whose body was found in August months after her boyfriend reported her missing. Bu had recorded her death as a traffic accident while telling her family he'd contacted her and she didn't wish to be found.

A review of roughly 300 cases handled by Bu over 16 months found 25 more falsely closed, either without verifying the missing person's whereabouts or by deleting records after wrongly reporting them dead. All 25 were eventually found safe, but the case prompted President Lee Jae Myung to order a police investigation and reforms.

A Jeju police detective attributed Bu's conduct to 'work-related negligence' from accumulated workload and fatigue, an explanation that does little for the family who spent months believing an officer had actually looked for their daughter.

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