GIFU (TR) – Gifu Prefectural Police have launched an investigation after three bodies — including one that had been reduced entirely to bones — were discovered inside a residence in the town of Ono, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Aug. 24).
Officers from the Ibi Police Station rushed to the property in the Sakuradaimon area at around 4:10 p.m. on August 24 following an alarming call from a town official.
“There is a household we have been unable to contact,” the official reported. “When we visited, the front door was open, but there was no response.”
Upon searching the premises, police made a grisly discovery. Two heavily decomposed bodies were found inside the single-story wooden main house. A third body, which was completely skeletonized, was discovered on the first floor of a two-story wooden annex on the same property.
Due to the severe state of decomposition, the genders and identities of the deceased remain unknown.
However, police believe the remains belong to the three unaccounted-for residents of the property: a woman in her 80s, her daughter in her 60s, and her son in his 50s. According to neighbors, the mother and daughter lived in the main house, while the son resided in the annex.
Last December
Local authorities revealed that a social worker had been conducting regular welfare checks at the home. The worker last successfully met with the daughter last December. After failing to make contact during subsequent visits, the worker consulted with the town office on the morning of August 24, prompting the check that led to the discovery.
The last confirmed sighting of any family member was in May, when another local resident saw the daughter. Since then, the family had vanished from public view.
The residence is located in a residential neighborhood approximately 800 meters northeast of the Ono Town Hall. Police are currently working to formally identify the bodies and determine the causes of death.
