TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Saturday arrested a 37-year-old man for the murder of a woman in Nakano Ward last year, reports TBS News (Mar. 12).
A DNA analysis led to the apprehension of Takahiro Tokura in Fukushima Prefecture, where he is living, for allegedly strangling 25-year-old Risa Kagaya to death inside her residence between August 25 and the following day.
Tokura, who has been charged with murder, denies the charges. “I don’t know the victim at all, I don’t recall being at her apartment, and I didn’t kill her,” the suspect is quoted by police.
Kagaya was working part-time at an izakaya restaurant. She was also enrolled in a theater group as a part of her pursuit to become an actress.
At approximately 10:00 p.m. on August 26, police found her naked body collapsed at the entrance of her second-floor apartment. Her face was covered by a towel.
About two hours before the discovery, Kagaya’s boss at the restaurant called police after she failed to arrive at work and he was unable to contact her at her residence.
A DNA analysis of human skin found under her fingernails, believed to belong to her attacker, matched with samples obtained from Tokura last month.
The suspect lived approximately 400 meters away from the residence of the victim at the time of the incident. He later moved to Fukushima.
