One of two suspects arrested for killing a 48-year-old woman and then throwing her body into the Hinatami River in Nakanojo, Gunma Prefecture, in 2019, has been sentenced to 27 years in prison by the Maebashi District Court.

The court handed down its ruling on Monday against Osamu Kobune, 35, a company employee, Fuji TV reported. The court ruled that Kobune and another defendant, Yuko Yamamoto, 31, an unemployed resident of Saitama Prefecture, who is yet to be tried, threw the body of Itsuki Kiyonori, a resident of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, off a bridge into the water on July 31, 2019.

Kiyonori’s body was found floating in the river by a fisherman on Aug 5. An autopsy revealed Kiyonori had been beaten about the head and chest before her body entered the water.

According to prosecutors, the two suspects and Kiyonori met on a social networking site for people looking for help to commit suicide. They met at JR Takasaki Station in Gunma Prefecture and drove up into the mountains to Nakanojo where Kobune beat Kiyonori to death with a baseball bat inside the car at a parking lot.

Source: ANNnewsCH