Japanese police have found nine dismembered bodies in an apartment south west of Tokyo, an apparent serial killing case that is transfixing and horrifying the nation.
Police were working on Tuesday to identify the victims after the man who lived there, 27-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi, confessed to cutting them up and hiding them in cold-storage cases, some covered with cat litter, a police spokesman said.
The bodies, in varying stages of decomposition, were found on Monday while police were investigating the disappearance of a 23-year-old woman, the spokesman said.
(Kyodo News via AP)
The woman’s brother reported her missing last week, he said.
The gruesome case captured attention in a country known for public safety, topping news with reports that showed the building where the suspect lived in a small studio apartment.
It was cordoned off by yellow police tape, its balcony covered with blue plastic sheets to block the view as investigators went in and out.
The missing woman is thought to be one of the eight women and one man who were dismembered and hidden in the apartment from late August to late October.
A toolbox and saw found in Shiraishi’s apartment may have been used to dismember the bodies, the police official said.
Police were still investigating the suspect’s motives, said the spokesman.
It was unclear who the other eight victims might be, or why it is that neighbours who said they had noticed foul smells coming from the apartment had not raised any alarms.
Local media reported that police first found the severed heads of two victims in coolers in the apartment’s entryway, then found the bodies of the other seven while searching the apartment.
Shiraishi told police he dismembered the bodies in his bathroom, which according to online descriptions of the apartment building where he lived was a plastic-sealed “unit bath”.
He put out some of the body parts as rubbish, Kyodo News agency reported.
Reports said the missing woman got in contact with Shiraishi via Twitter, seeking a partner for a suicide pact and saying she was afraid to die alone.
The two were recorded by security cameras walking together outside railway stations near her apartment and the suspect’s apartment, the reports said.
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