KANAGAWA (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have revealed that a man who has admitted to killing nine persons in his residence in Zama City last year repeatedly pestered his only male victim for money, reports Fuji News Network (Jan. 17).
According to investigative sources, Takahiro Shiraishi, 27, sent about 130 messages via the smartphone application Line to Shogo Nishinaka, 20, over a roughly two-week period before October 29. The content of many of the messages was related to money.
“What kind of salary do you get?” one message from Shiraishi read. Another asked, “Do you have money on hand?”
On October 30, police investigating the disappearance of Aiko Tamura, a 23-year-old woman from Tokyo’s Hachioji City, entered Shiraishi’s residence and found body parts belonging to eight women and one man inside seven ice coolers.
Following questioning, police arrested Shiraishi, on suspicion of abandoning a corpse. Upon his arrest, the suspect told police he carved up the bodies after killing the persons. Police subsequently re-arrested him on suspicion of murder.
On October 23, Tamura and Shiraishi were spotted together in surveillance camera footage taken at a railway station located about 600 meters from the residence.
Shiraishi moved into the residence in late August. Police believe the killings took place between August 22 and October 30.
During the course of the investigation, police found a number of items in the residence that are believed to have been used in the killings, including a saw and 10 nylon ropes.
Death by hanging
According to previous reports, Shiraishi lured victims to his residence via Twitter, telling persons who expressed an interest in taking their lives that he had special knowledge of death by hanging.
The residence includes a loft. During questioning, Shiraishi said that the structure was used to kill the victims by hanging.
In the latest development, Shiraishi said that he took 10,000 yen from Nishinaka, telling the victim that he needed the money to buy a rope.
Police used the results of DNA analyses to conclude that three of the victims were female high school students. Five other victims were women from Saitama and Kanagawa prefectures. Nishinaka, also from Kanagawa, was a boyfriend of one of the female victims. The first body identified belonged to Tamura.
