KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have announced the discovery of skeletal remains inside the Kawasaki City residence of a man in his 20s who is the former boyfriend of a woman who went missing last year, reports NHK (May 2).
In December, Asahi Okazaki, 20, was reported missing. According to her family, she had consulted with police before going missing about stalking by her former boyfriend, whose whereabouts are unknown.
On Wednesday night, police searched the home of the man in Kawasaki Ward on suspicion of violating the Stalking Prevention Act. A partially skeletal body was found in a bag.
Due to the stage of decay, the gender and approximate age of the body are unknown, police said.
In addition to working to identify the body, police are seeking the whereabouts of the former boyfriend. The case is being treated as abandoning a corpse.
Bicycle found
Okazaki is also a resident of Kawasaki. She disappeared from her home on the morning of December 20. The glass windows of her home were found to be broken and the door unlocked. Her family reported her missing to two days later.
After she went missing, her family asked for information on social media. In January, it was discovered that Okazaki’s bicycle was found near the home of the former boyfriend.
According to Okazaki’s family, the bicycle is believed to have been stolen shortly before she went missing.
“I might be killed”
On Thursday night, her family and others gathered at a police station to demand explanations from police officers. According to the family, the former boyfriend’s stalking behavior got worse from November 2012, and we had reported him to the police many times.”
“My daughter was stalked by her ex-boyfriend, who would sometimes hang around her home and workplace,” said Tetsuya Okazaki, her father. “The day before she went missing, she sent messages to her co-workers saying, ‘I might be killed.'”
Okazaki’s 18-year-old brother said, “I hope that the body found isn’t my sister, but in my heart I’m sure it is. It’s just sad. I feel like I’m blaming myself for not being able to help her.” He added, “I’m frustrated that the police have said there was no criminal activity and haven’t conducted the investigation we wanted.”
A man in his 40s who is a relative of Okazaki, said the family had consulted with police about her being a victim of stalking. They also urged them to search for her after she went missing, according to the Mainichi Shimbun (May 1).
“She was a cheerful and nice girl who often came to our house to play, and she also looked after my children,” he said. “I had heard her talk about how she was worried about being stalked. Even after she went missing, the police told us they couldn’t find her because there was no criminal activity involved. It’s really frustrating.”
Okazaki consulted a female friend, 19, about troubles with the former boyfriend. “I heard that she had a fight [at his house], and when she said she was going home, he stripped her of her clothes and made it impossible for her to leave,” the friend recalled.
A person involved in the investigation said, “The police station responds on a case-by-case basis. At this point it doesn’t appear that their response was clearly inadequate, but the prefectural police will likely be examining the matter in detail.”
