KANAGAWA (TR) – Police have arrested an elderly woman who is suspected of assisting in the dumping of the body of a male acquaintance in Togane City, Chiba Prefecture earlier this year, reports the Sankei Shimbun (May 11).
On May 10, police issued a photograph showing Kahoru Matsumoto, 70, who is believed to have assisted Masayuki Shindo and Norio Oishi, both 69, in the alleged burial of the body of Gunsai Ouchi, 79, in a grove of trees in the Matsunogo area on January 21 and the following day.
According to investigative sources, police were tipped off about “a person resembling Matsumoto” near Musashi-Kosugi Station in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa on Saturday morning.
Officers later arriving at the location apprehended Matsumoto. After her arrest on suspicion of abandoning a corpse, she admitted to the allegations. “Three persons dug the hole and buried the body,” she was quoted.
Died inside a vehicle
Police arrested Shindo and Oishi on the same charge on May 3. They both admitted to the allegations upon their arrest.
The suspects said that Ouchi died inside a vehicle that was traveling outside the prefecture.
The matter emerged on May 2, when Shindo visited a police box in Chiba City. “It became painful to keep silent,” the suspect told police in confessing to the crime.
During questioning, Shindo said that Ouchi’s body was carried by car to the grove. A shovel was then used to dig a hole.
Officers using information provided by Shindo found Ouchi’s body at a depth of more than 20 centimeters on May 3.
After learning that Matsumoto likely also traveled inside the vehicle during the dumping of the body, police sought her whereabouts.
Police had previously said Ouchi consulted with the police twice last year regarding money-related problems between him and Matsumoto.
