On the 8th, it was found that Inspector Jang, the father of Gwangju City high-school-girl murder suspect Jang Yun-gi, asked the police investigation chief about the location where Jang discarded his mobile phone and received confirmation. Prosecutors are pursuing whether the leak of investigative information by police colluding with Inspector Jang, an incumbent police executive, led to the destruction of the key piece of evidence, the mobile phone.

The special investigation team at the Gwangju District Prosecutors Office (led by Kim Bong-jin, head of Criminal Division 1) secured a call recording from around 3 p.m. on May 8 in which Inspector Jang, father of Jang Yun-gi, asked Inspector Park, head of the violent crimes team at Gwangsan Police Station in Gwangju, “Is the place where Jang Yun-gi threw away the mobile phone under the Yeongsan River Cheomdan Bridge?” It is said that Inspector Jang suddenly asked this while talking with Inspector Park about the vehicle of Jang Yun-gi.

When Inspector Park acknowledged, “That is correct,” Inspector Jang requested, “Put me through to Jang Yun-gi.” Inspector Park handed the phone to Jang Yun-gi. Inspector Jang asked, “Is it Cheomdan Bridge?” and Jang replied, “That is the place.” Inspector Jang said, “Listen well to what they say,” and hung up.

At the time, although Jang Yun-gi had been arrested and detained on suspicion of murdering high school student Lee Chae-won in the early hours of May 5, the police investigation team connected multiple calls with Inspector Jang. The police have asserted that these calls were an investigative technique using the father in order to persuade Jang, who would not provide the precise location where he had discarded the mobile phone.

Prosecutors plan to investigate whether, after the call with Inspector Park, Inspector Jang went to Cheomdan Bridge, retrieved the mobile phone of Jang Yun-gi, and disposed of it. During a supplementary investigation by prosecutors in May, Inspector Jang, questioned as a witness, stated, “I did not go to Cheomdan Bridge at that time.”

The mobile phone Jang Yun-gi used at the time of the crime is considered key evidence, but its whereabouts are unknown. The phone seized when Jang was urgently apprehended by police at 11 a.m. on the day of the crime was a device he had used in the past and was inactive. The police conducted an underwater search of the Yeongsan River but did not find the phone.

Immediately after the call with Inspector Park, Inspector Jang went to the studio apartment of Jang Yun-gi and disposed of a real-doll (a human-shaped doll). The investigation team provided the address of the apartment and the entry passcode. Inspector Jang also incinerated several feature phones (older mobile phones) that Jang had used during his middle·high school years.

Prosecutors are focusing on the possibility that higher-ranking police were involved in the process by which the police omitted key evidence and conveyed investigative information to Inspector Jang. Taking together that Inspector Park and Inspector Jang have no overlapping work histories, that there is almost no record of direct calls between them, and that they address each other in honorifics when speaking, prosecutors infer that there was no personal closeness to collude in destroying evidence.

Prosecutors suspect that the police systematically concealed the fact that Inspector Jang is the father of Jang Yun-gi. According to a call recording obtained by prosecutors, when Inspector Jang asked Sergeant Kim of the violent crimes team, “To what level has it been reported that I am the guardian of (Jang Yun-gi)?” Sergeant Kim replied, “Everyone knows not to disclose it carelessly to the higher-ups.”

A video recorded as the police investigation team searched the vehicle of Jang Yun-gi captured officers discovering cable ties, a restraining tool, and saying, “Those are cable ties.” Prosecutors confirmed the statement of a subordinate officer that Inspector Park instructed him, “Delete the video.” Prosecutors suspect that the police, despite knowing that the cable ties were key evidence, might have omitted them from the case file sent to prosecutors.