HYOGO (TR) – Hyogo Prefectural Police have off identified the male corpse found with stab wounds off the coast of Kobe earlier this year, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Apr. 12).
Police on Wednesday revealed that the results of a DNA analysis indicated that the body found floating face-down about one kilometer off the coast of Suma Ward in February belongs to 49-year-old Takayuki Ogawa. His body had been stabbed several times in the abdomen.
Ogawa had been living in a company dormitory in Kita Ward until he went missing in July of 2015. An examination of bank records revealed that Ogawa maintained only a small amount of money in an account, and security camera footage showed a person resembling Ogawa withdrawing what money remained at some point after he disappeared from the dormitory.
Ogawa’s body was found on February 4 by employee at a company involved in seaweed farming. The corpse was entangled in a net for the raising of nori (seaweed). He is believed to have died in January.
After the discovery of the body, police were treating the case as the result of foul play or an accident.
