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Kanagawa cops: Man’s corpse in river likely result of hit-and-run accident

A bridge above the Sakawagawa River in Kanagawa Prefecture
A bridge above the Sakawagawa River in Kanagawa Prefecture

KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have on Thursday announced that the corpse of an elderly man found in a river in the town of Yamakita earlier this month was probably the result of a hit-and-run accident, reports TV Asahi (Mar. 11).

On March 3, a 21-year-old male passerby found the body of Koichi Oizumi, an 80-year-old resident of Oyama, Shizuoka Prefecture, floating face-down in the Sakawagawa River.

His body had suffered bone fractures to the back. Both feet were found to have bruises that seem to have resulted from impact with a solid object. The results of an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a broken back.

Oizumi, who suffers from senility, went missing on February 18, the day he informed his family that was going to visit the local town hall.

The distance between his residence and the site where his body was found is approximately 10 kilometers, according to the Sankei Shimbun (Mar. 10). Police suspect that Oizumi was struck and killed by a car soon after departing his home. His body then fell into the river, which transported it downstream.

The investigation is ongoing, with police still open to the possibility of the incident being the result of foul play.