Overview

• Kanagawa police said judicial autopsy results show the bagged bones are human, from multiple people estimated to be in their 20s to 50s, with at least one female identified.
• The remains exhibit postmortem changes consistent with more than 50 years since death and show no apparent external trauma, leaving causes of death undetermined.
• Investigators noted soil on the bones and are examining whether bodies were previously buried and later exhumed and dumped at the Aikawa materials yard.
• A 79-year-old land manager found the bags on Aug. 19 and told police the bags were not there in early August; several skulls and numerous long bones were recovered.
• Separately, Fukuoka police on Aug. 28 re-arrested construction firm representative Ikio Murasaka, 53, on suspicion of injuring and abandoning a 46-year-old subordinate who suffered fractures and died three months later from infection; he was indicted Aug. 14 in a different assault case.