[Column] A woman went missing in Jeju. Why did police keep evidence from her family?

On Monday morning, a massive search operation spanning 400 people from various sectors began in Jeju after a woman named Jang Mi-ran went missing. Within an hour, her body was discovered in the village of Suwon in Hallim township. Jang had been missing since May, and her remains lay weathered by the heat in a place of natural beauty.

The family had already filed a second missing person report in July and distributed flyers with Jang's details, hoping to find her. The police, however, denied giving the family crucial evidence, including cell tower data showing Jang's last known location and timeline. The family's pleas for this information were met with the police claiming it could not be disclosed to them as it was part of an ongoing investigation.

This raises questions about the fairness of withholding such evidence from the family, who had publicly shared Jang's information to aid in her search. The police argue that confidentiality is necessary to protect their investigations, but this can be seen as dismissive of victims' needs to understand the truth of their experiences.

Recently, a change in the Criminal Procedure Act will allow victims to request access to investigative records, including statements from both the victim and suspect, which could lead to greater transparency in such cases.