23 letters presumably written by late actress Jang found

Letters believed to have been handwritten by the late actress Jang Ja-yeon were found at the prison shell of a man who is alleged to have exchanged hundreds of letters with her, police said Wednesday.

Jang committed suicide in March 2009 after reportedly having been forced to have sex with numerous figures in the entertainment industry for parts. Police were checking if the letters are genuine.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency and Bundang Police Department Wednesday raided and searched Gwangju Prison, where the 31-year-old inmate is serving his sentence. They seized two boxes of documents that contained 23 letters, 20 envelopes, more than 70 photocopies of newspaper clippings, and mail registries.

The raid was conducted on Jang's prison shell, a locker with his belongings, and a storage facility for keeping inmates' personal effects.

Of the items seized, police immediately sealed letters and envelopes believed to have been handwritten and mailed by Jang and sent them to the National Institute of Scientific Investigation. Researchers are studying handwriting patterns and fingerprints.

A police source said, "We sent the institute three documents handwritten by Jang that we secured and three articles handwritten by (the prisoner) together with the letters seized Wednesday. We requested that the forensic research agency urgently conduct a review", adding, "It usually takes about two weeks but we expect inspection results within five to seven days".

"(The prisoner) claims he received the seized letters from Jang, which are handwritten", he said. "Of the more than 20 envelopes, only three or four are postmarked".

Most of the news clippings were found to be related to Jang's case, with many of the news articles marked with highlighter pens.

As for senders' addresses and postmarks on the envelopes that could provide clues to whether the prisoner received the letters via mail at the prison, a police officer said, "Since we sealed them in boxes for keeping seized articles the moment we confiscated them, we had no chance check them".

While the forensic agency inspects the seized documents, police plan to compare the newspaper clippings with photocopies of more than 50 letters the prisoner submitted to the Suwon District Court's Seongnam branch, which handled Jang's case, to check if any phrases were cited.

Police also sent a profiler (criminal psychology analyst) to Gwangju Prison and analyzed the prisoner's mental state and claims. Lee Myung-kyun, chief of the Samcheok Police Station who investigated the case in 2009, was called in to join the probe.

If the letters are deemed to be handwritten by Jang, police plan to confirm the authenticity of the content in the letters and determine whether to reopen the case.

Jang's social security number written on the prisoner's plea was also confirmed as real. Police announced in its 2009 investigation that since Jang and the prisoner had never met, there was no need to probe suspicions on the prisoner.

Since the prisoner was found to have known Jang's social security number, however, police say he and Jang might have had a close relationship.

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