Overview
- The Hokkaido Prefectural Police said a judicial autopsy found the woman discovered hidden in a Hidaka bar died of neck compression causing asphyxia.
- Bar owner Toshihiko Matsukura, 49, arrested on suspicion of abandoning a corpse, was referred to the Sapporo prosecutors, and investigators are working to confirm the victim’s identity.
- The body in Hidaka was concealed in a roughly one-tatami-sized recess low in a wall with the opening boarded over, and the victim is believed to be a woman missing since December 31.
- In Saitama, company employee Sanae Yamamoto, 51, was found dead in a Niiza apartment, and Shin Yamaguchi, 53, was arrested on a corpse-abandonment charge and sent to prosecutors.
- Investigative sources say Yamaguchi told police he struck Yamamoto and forced her into a car, while a forensic exam points to suspected asphyxiation as officers probe motive and possible homicide.