Discovery of unused rope leads police to believe Zama man plotted killing of tenth person

Nov 17, 2017 | News On Japan

Nov 17, 2017 (tokyoreporter.com) - Following the discovery of nine corpses in a residence in Zama City last month, Tokyo Metropolitan Police have reason to believe that a man in custody, who has admitted to taking the lives of the victims, plotted one additional killing, reports TBS News

On October 30, police investigating the disappearance of Aiko Tamura, a 23-year-old woman from Tokyo's Hachioji City, entered the residence and found the body parts belonging to the eight women and one man inside seven ice coolers.

Following questioning, police arrested Takahiro Shiraishi, 27, on suspicion of abandoning a corpse. Upon his arrest, the suspect told police he carved up the bodies after killing the persons. "I dismembered the corpses in the bathroom," Shiraishi was quoted. "I did it as a means of destroying evidence."

During the course of the investigation, police found a number of items in the residence that are believed to have been used in the killings, including a saw and 10 nylon ropes. Of the ropes, which measure three meters in length, one had not been used, which has led investigators to conclude that the suspect plotted a tenth killing.

"Hanged by their necks"

The residence includes a loft. During questioning, Shiraishi said that the structure was used to kill the victims. "They were hanged by their necks with ropes tied to the loft," the suspect said.

Shiraishi moved into the residence in late August. Police believe the killings took place between August 22 and October 30.

According to previous reports, Shiraishi lured victims to his residence via Twitter, telling persons who expressed an interest in taking their lives that he had special knowledge of death by hanging.

Three female high school students

According to information provided by investigators on November 10, the results of DNA analyses concluded that three of the victims are female high school students: Kureha Ishihara (15) from Gunma Prefecture, Natsumi Kubo (17) from Saitama Prefecture and Akari Suda (17) from Fukushima Prefecture.

Two other victims are from Saitama (Hinako Sarashina, 19, and Hitomi Fujima, 26) while three others are from Kanagawa Prefecture (Mizuki Miura and Kazumi Maruyama, both 21). The only male victim is Shogo Nishinaka, 20, who is also from Kanagawa and the boyfriend of Miura.

Earlier in the week, police identified the ninth body as belonging to Tamura, who went missing in October.

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