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Tokyo police ID first of nine corpses found in Zama residence

Aiko Tamura
Aiko Tamura

KANAGAWA (TR) – Investigative sources with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police revealed on Monday the confirmation of the identity of the first of nine corpses found last week in the Zama City residence of a 27-year-old man, reports Nippon News Network (Nov. 6).

According to the sources, police used a DNA analysis and other means to confirm the identity of one of the bodies as belonging to Aiko Tamura, a 23-year-old woman from Tokyo’s Hachioji City who went missing last month.

Police had previously revealed that six of the other victims likely include four girls — from Saitama (aged 17 and 19), Gunma (15) and Fukushima (17) prefectures — and two women (25 and 26) from Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures. The eighth and ninth victims are believed to be a man and woman who live together in Kanagawa.

DNA testing is ongoing to confirm the identity of the eight other victims.

Carved up the bodies

On October 30, Tokyo police entered the residence and found the body parts belonging to the eight women and one man inside seven ice coolers.

Following questioning, police arrested Takahiro Shiraishi, 27, on suspicion of abandoning a corpse. The suspect told police he carved up the bodies after killing the persons. “I dismembered the corpses in the bathroom,” Shiraishi was quoted. “I did it as a means of destroying evidence.”

Shiraishi moved into the residence in late August. Police believe the killings took place between August 22 and October 30. Among the body parts found in the coolers were skulls and other bones. Regarding the flesh and internal organs, the suspect told police, “I dumped them in the garbage.”

Missing since October 21

On October 21, the parents of Tamura were unable to contact their daughter. Three days later, a family member lodged a missing persons report with police. As a part of the subsequent investigation into her disappearance, police searched the residence last week.

According to police, Tamura posted a message on Twitter saying that she was seeking partners with whom to commit suicide as a group. She also is known to have corresponded with Shiraishi on at least one occasion on a site for people seeking to take their lives.

Shiraishi used Twitter to lure victims, telling persons who expressed an interest in taking their lives that he had special knowledge of death by hanging. “I invited women with a desire to commit suicide, whom I got to know on Twitter, to come to my apartment to die together with me.”

“It was a lie”

According to NHK (Nov. 5), police have quoted the suspect as saying that the victims who came to him were not convinced that they wanted to take their lives. “The women I met didn’t say they wanted to die,” the suspect told police.

Shiraishi also said that he was not honest with the victims about his intentions. “I had no intention of committing suicide with them,” he said. “It was a lie.”

At just before 3:00 p.m. on October 23, a video camera at a railway station near Shiraishi’s residence captured two persons, believed to be Shiraishi and Tamura, walking together outside. In the footage, the person believed to be Shiraishi appears to be leading his companion in the direction of the residence.

According to police, Shiraishi has admitted to killing Tamura shortly after they left the station.