FUKUOKA (TR) – Fukuoka Prefectural Police have arrested a 35-year-old male construction worker in connection with the death of a missing woman in the town of Kasuya last week, reports Fuji News Network (July 15).
On Sunday, police accused Tetsuya Koga of abandoning the body of Teruko Murao, 38, in the Sue River in the Nakabaru area.
The suspect admits to the allegations, police said.
On July 8, Murao’s brother-in-law found her body in the river. The results of an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be suffocation. As well, she suffered a broken bone near her neck, police said previously.
Two days before the discovery, Murao, a company employee, and her husband went to a shopping mall. At one point, they separated, with him visiting a fast-food restaurant.
At around 9:30 p.m., Murao told her husband by telephone that she was on her way home. However, she never arrived. The following day, her family lodged a missing persons report with police.
Killed in a field
Koga and the victim are not believed to be acquaintances. The suspect became a person of interest for police after an examination of security camera footage showed his vehicle in the area. Police took him in for voluntary questioning on Sunday morning.
Police found Murao’s bicycle near where her body was discovered. Investigators believe that she was killed in a nearby field in which the grass was found to have been trampled down.
An eyewitness tells Fuji News Network (July 15) that they saw a “suspicious vehicle” in the area on the night the crime is believed to have been committed. “It is rare for a vehicle to be stopped [around here],” the witness said. “Then I heard a woman scream, “Help!'”
Police are investigating whether to also accuse Koga of murder.
