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Kumamoto: ‘Foul smell’ precedes discovery of corpse in hotel parking lot

in the town of Ozu
The corpse of a man from Fukuoka City was found in a vehicle parked at a business hotel in the town of Ozu (NHK)

KUMAMOTO (TR) – Kumamoto Prefectural Police have launched an investigation after the corpse of a man was found in a vehicle parked at a hotel in the town of Ozu last week, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (May 19).

At around 4:00 p.m. on May 17, a passerby to the parking lot for the hotel alerted police after observing a “foul smell” emanating from one of the vehicles.

Officers arriving at the scene found the body inside the back seat of the vehicle to be heavily decayed, including the head having turned skeletal. As a result, the gender could not be determined.

Both legs of the body had been bound with tape. Also, the vehicle was locked, but no key was found, according to police.

On Saturday, police confirmed that the identity of body is that of Michihito Miyata, a 44-year-old resident of Fukuoka City who had rented the vehicle at an unspecified location in Fukuoka Prefecture in the middle of April.

At some point thereafter, the family of Miyata lodged a missing persons report with police.

The results of an autopsy did not reveal the cause of death. As well, there was no evidence to suggest suicide, such as the presence of drugs. Further, no will was found, police said.

Police are treating the case as murder and abandoning a corpse.