Officers re-arrested Shinya Nakao, the 48-year-old manager of a used goods shop in Chikugo City, and his 46-year-old wife, Chisa, for the murder of the 4-year-old son of her sister, 36-year-old Sakae Hiyamizu.
In October of 2006, the suspects allegedly assaulted the boy numerous times until he died and dumped his body in a river near the shop.
Police in August charged the couple in the murder of the boy’s father, Kazuya Hiyamizu, then 34, who was allegedly beaten to death between September and October of that same year. The victim’s wife was charged with manslaughter.
The latest arrest is the latest development in case involving a string of disappearances. Around October of last year, reports surfaced about a number of people related to the couple who had gone missing over the past decade.
On June 16, police first arrested Nakao and his wife for the killing of Takashi Hidaka, a former employee, then 22, who was beaten at their apartment in early May of 2004. He died the following month.
Later in June, Shinya Nakao admitted to grinding the bones of multiple corpses with a machine and tossing the remains into a river near the home of his parents.
A search of the riverbed by investigators on June 12 revealed several human bone fragments. A DNA test performed on a bone fragment found in the river provided a match with that of the 34-year-old Hiyamizu.
Since that time, investigators had been searching for the 4-year-old boy.
