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🇰🇷 South Korea /Crime & Justice

Police Back Away From Early Suicide Theory in Jeju Missing Woman’s Death

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Police say the cause of death of a woman found dead in Jeju after 104 days remains undetermined because of decomposition.
  • Investigators initially said the circumstances suggested a low likelihood of homicide and that she may have died by hanging, but now say they are considering all possibilities.
  • The case is linked to a separate investigation into a police officer accused of falsely closing missing-person reports, including 63 irregularities among 298 cases reviewed.

Police have shifted away from appearing to conclude that a missing Jeju woman took her own life, saying instead that the cause of death cannot be determined because her body had decomposed.

Hong Seok-ki, head of the National Office of Investigation at the Korean National Police Agency, said on Aug. 31 that investigators had confirmed an “undetermined cause of death due to decomposition” and were pursuing the case with all possibilities open.

Undetermined cause of death due to decomposition.

— Hong Seok-kiThe National Office of Investigation chief described the findings in the investigation into the woman found dead in Jeju.

The change followed earlier comments that drew criticism. When authorities found the body of the woman, identified by her surname Jang, on Aug. 24 at a palm farm in Hallim, Jeju City, police said the position and location of the body indicated a low likelihood of homicide. Acting National Police Agency chief Yoo Jae-sung told a parliamentary committee that a crime had not been confirmed, but said he had been told she was presumed to have died by hanging.

Police later conducted a reenactment at the farm on Aug. 27 as debate continued over the cause of death. Lee Woong-hyuk, a Konkuk University professor of police studies, said investigators should have waited for both an initial and a detailed autopsy before commenting. He said premature references to suicide could fuel speculation that police preferred to rule out a criminal connection, particularly when public trust in police is low.

All possibilities are open in the investigation.

— Hong Seok-kiHe said police were no longer limiting the inquiry to an apparent suicide.

The National Police Agency said Hong’s remarks did not reverse the police position. It said he was referring to a forensic assessment that found the cause of death unclear but considered hanging a possibility.

Separately, Jeju police are investigating an officer accused of falsely closing missing-person reports and plan to send the case to prosecutors on Sept. 1 before briefing the results. A review of 298 cases handled by the officer found that 63 were either never entered into, or were later deleted from, the missing-person profiling system. Police have not yet said how many involved false closures.

In principle, police should wait for both the initial autopsy and the detailed autopsy before stating a position on the cause of death.

— Lee Woong-hyukThe Konkuk University professor criticized the police for commenting before forensic findings were complete.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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