CHIBA (TR) – Chiba Prefectural Police have revealed that a body discovered aboard a motorboat in Choshi City last week suffered several stab wounds, reports TV Asahi (Sept. 19).
On September 14, a manager at the Choshi Marina reported a “foul smell” coming from a wooden box aboard the 6-meter-long boat.
Officers arriving at the scene found the body, bent at the knees, packed inside the 1-meter-long box.
At the time of the discovery, the gender of the body was not known. However, the results of an autopsy revealed that the body is that of a woman, aged in her 30s to 50s. As well, she stood 157 centimeters tall, police said.
An examination of the body revealed that she suffered stab wounds to the chest and abdomen. She is believed to be have died up to one year ago, police said.
The owner of the boat is a male Nepalese national. For two years, he left the boat moored at the marina with his whereabouts unknown. However, the Immigration Bureau of Japan apprehended him for overstaying his visa last month.
Police are treating the case as murder.