Police say cause of death remains unknown after missing man’s body found 104 days later

The cause of death remains unknown in the case of a South Korean man whose body was found 104 days after he disappeared on Jeju Island. National Police Agency chief Hong Seok-ki said severe decomposition prevented forensic investigators from reaching a definitive conclusion.

Hong said investigators were keeping every possibility open. His wording differed from the Jeju police statement issued after the body was found, which said foul play appeared unlikely and placed greater weight on suicide. A senior police official had also told lawmakers that the death was believed to involve hanging.

Questions about that conclusion persisted because the body was found in a secluded palm grove in Hallim, Jeju City. Police said it would have been difficult to attach a rope to the thorny palm trees, and investigators found no suicide note. They later conducted a reenactment at the farm to examine whether hanging was possible.

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The cause of death is unknown due to decomposition, and we are investigating with all possibilities open.

The investigation has been complicated by the delay in finding the body. Police officer Boo, who handled the original case, allegedly closed the first missing-person report falsely on May 15. The family filed another report on July 19, but a concentrated search began only after the case received media coverage. Damage to the body’s fingerprints meant police had to identify the man through his teeth.

Boo is accused of falsely closing two missing-person cases. Of the 298 cases he closed, 235 were marked as ended in the missing-person profiling system, while 63 were deleted or never entered. Police described deleting records as unusual, because it normally requires a specific reason, such as confirmation that the missing person had died. The National Police Agency is reviewing more than 310,000 missing-person cases closed over the past three years. Jeju police plan to send the case to prosecutors and announce the investigation’s findings.

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I deeply regret and feel remorse that managerial command and supervision, including my own, did not function properly.