HYOGO (TR) – Hyogo Prefectural Police on Monday arrested a 49-year-old man and his female roommate after the discovery of a woman’s body in their residence in Kobe City’s Suma Ward, reports Jiji Press (June 17).
At around 11:10 a.m. on Sunday, police were tipped off by a neighbor about an “offensive smell” coming from the ninth-floor residence of Nobuaki Tsuda, of no known occupation, and 51-year-old Mayumi Iwamoto.
Officers arriving at the residence found the woman’s decayed body wrapped in a sheet in a closet. The results of an autopsy indicated that the woman, aged in her 40s or 50s, died over the past several months, police said.
Police did not reveal whether the suspects, who have been accused of abandoning a corpse, admit to the allegations.
According to police, Tsuda was married to a 49-year-old woman who lived in the residence at one point. However, neighbors have not seen his former wife since last December.
“At the end of last year, we divorced and she left,” Tsuda told police, according to Mainichi Broadcasting System (June 18).
Police will use the results of a DNA analysis on the body to determine whether it belongs to his former wife.
