HOKKAIDO (TR) – Three men accused of dumping the corpse of a 19-year-old girl in the mountains of Iwamizawa City last year pleaded guilty to the crime at the opening of their trial on Tuesday, reports TBS News (May 29).
At the Sapporo District Court, Tomonori Jin and Kotaku Hasegawa, both 31 years of age, and Kazuo Shibata, 47, admitted to working together in dumping the body of Yuri Miyoshi in the mountains on around December 15.
All three defendants, who have been accused of abandoning a corpse, said that they committed the crime since kakuseizai, or stimulant drugs, were in the system of the girl.
Whether the cause of death of Miyoshi is known has not been revealed.
In February, a human head and hair were found in snow in a wooded area. The results of a DNA analysis on the remains proved to be a match for Miyoshi, police said at the time.
Police first arrested Jin and Hasegawa after the discovery of the remains. During questioning, the participation of Shibata surfaced. He turned himself over to police two days later.
Bar customer
Miyoshi, a resident of Sapporo’s Shiroishi Ward, regularly visited a bar managed Jin and Hasegawa. She was last seen in Sapporo’s red-light district of Susukino on December 15. Her family reported her missing on December 21.
According to the prosecution, Jin went to a hotel with Miyoshi prior to her disappearance. Upon noticing that she died in a room of the hotel, he alerted Hasegawa and Shibata to assist him in the dumping of her body.
