HOKKAIDO (TR) – Hokkaido Prefectural Police have arrested six persons over the fatal beating of a male university student whose body was found in a park in Ebetsu City over the weekend.
The victim is 20-year-old university student Tomoya Hase, who was found naked and collapsed in a park in Bunkyodaiminamicho Park on the morning of October 26. He was later confirmed dead at a hospital.
Police have since arrested six persons on suspicion of inflicting injury resulting in death. Among them are Hase’s girlfriend, 20-year-old Ama Yagihara, and Haruna Kawamura, who is also 20, reports Fuji News Network (Oct. 31).
Yagihara and Kawamura are suspected of conspiring with several other persons to beat Hase in the face and other parts of his body in a park in Ebetsu City between the late on the night of October 25 and early the next morning.
Two boys, aged 17 and 18, are among the remaining four persons accused in the case, police said.
Hase, who attended university in Chitose City, lived alone. According to investigators, after meeting with a friend on the night of October 25, Hase is believed to have traveled by train from JR Chitose Station to JR Taima Station in Ebetsu. Security cameras captured him walking alone around Taima Station, which is about 600 meters from where his body was discovered.
Police have not revealed whether the suspects admit to the allegations.
The investigation is ongoing.
