Overview
- Hotel staff found a 39-year-old Naha woman unresponsive in a room and emergency responders confirmed her death on Oct. 3.
- Surveillance footage showed the woman enter with a man who left alone carrying her belongings and those items were later recovered near the hotel.
- Okinawa prefectural police treated the case as a robbery-murder and set up a 197-person special investigation unit to gather evidence and analyze CCTV.
- Police located and arrested Devin Jacob Ballard, a 20-year-old U.S. Marine from Camp Futenma, on Oct. 4 on suspicion of robbery-murder and he denies the charges.
- Authorities will carry out a judicial autopsy to confirm the cause of death and the case could heighten local scrutiny of incidents involving U.S. service members.