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Man, 39, accused in murder of 2 Chinese sisters in Kanagawa

Tatsuya Iwasaki
Tatsuya Iwasaki has been accused of strangling Chen Baolan (25) and Chen Baozhen (22) to death

KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have applied fresh charges of murder to a 39-year-old man in custody for allegedly dumping the bodies of two Chinese sisters in Hadano City last month, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Aug. 11).

On Friday, police accused Tatsuya Iwasaki, a 39-year-old resident of Yokohama, of strangling Chen Baolan (25) and Chen Baozhen (22) to death inside the residence they shared in Yokohama’s Naka Ward on around July 6.

The bodies of both women were found stuffed in two suitcases, both fastened shut, that had been dumped a few meters off a road in the Terayama area of Hadano on July 13.

Missing on July 7

The sisters went missing from their residence on July 7. On that day, a female acquaintance of the women informed police that they had dropped out of contact.

An examination of security camera footage for the building of the residence taken on July 6 and the following day showed a man, believed to be Iwasaki, repeatedly entering and exiting the unit of the women.

Customer at bar

According to a previous report, Iwasaki was a customer at bar employing Baolan. During questioning, he said that he was her former boyfriend.

Police initially arrested Iwasaki for confinement. On July 21, he was accused of corpse abandonment.