TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have identified the woman whose corpse was found inside a love hotel last week as being a 36-year-old resident of Koto Ward, reports Jiji Press (Sept. 17).
At around 8:30 p.m. on September 12, a male cleaning staff member reported the discovery of “a body wrapped in a sheet” inside a second-floor room of the hotel, located in the Ikebukuro area of Toshima Ward.
Officers arriving the scene found the body of the woman on the floor at the side of the bed. The body, bent at the knees, had been stuffed inside a plastic bag covered by the sheet.
On Tuesday, police revealed that the woman is Hiromi Araki, of no known occupation. At 3:00 p.m. on September 12, she departed her residence. “I am going to the hospital,” she told a family member. She never returned.
After the discovery, police said that the results of an autopsy revealed that Araki died due to suffocation as a result to pressure applied to the neck.
As well, Araki’s ankles had been bound with rope and her wrists with adhesive tape, police also revealed.
An examination of security camera footage showed a man exiting the room about 50 minutes before the discovery. He was wearing a white breathing mask.
“It is truly regrettable and shocking that we lost our precious daughter,” Araki’s father was quoted. “The criminal who killed our daughter can never be forgiven.”
The case is being treated as murder and abandoning a corpse.
