KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have announced that a body found under an office in Atsugi City belongs to a man who went missing in another city last month, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Feb. 28).
On Monday evening, the body of Hajime Kashiwazaki, a 27-year-old painter living in Sagamihara City, was found buried under floorboards of the office of a construction company, located in the Kamiechi area. An autopsy to determine the cause of death was scheduled for Tuesday.
According to police, Kashiwazaki returned home with members of his family at around midnight on January 10. He then went park his vehicle in a nearby lot but was not heard from again.
Kashiwazaki’s vehicle was later found in a parking lot of a gymnasium in the town of Aikawa, located about seven kilometers from his residence. A bloodstain found in the back seat proved to be a match for Kashiwazaki. A part of a seat had also been burned.
A 19-year-old boy told the Asahi that he saw several men gathered around the vehicle of Kashiwazaki in the parking lot near his home on the night he disappeared. “It was a noisy scene where it seemed like he was being kidnapped,” the boy is quoted.
Police are investigating the case on suspicion of confinement and abandoning a corpse.
