ISHIKAWA (TR) – Ishikawa Prefectural Police have arrested three men in connection with the death of a 30-year-old missing woman whose body was found buried in a mountainous area of the town of Noto on Sunday, reports Kyodo News (Oct. 14).
On Sunday, officers working off a lead provided by one of the suspects found the body of Akino Kita, a 30-year-old resident of Kanazawa City, buried in a forest.
The results of an autopsy revealed that the cause of death was suffocation as a result of pressure applied to her neck area, according to the Kanazawa-Nishi Police Station.
Police have accused Tsubasa Endo, the 28-year-old manager of a bar in Osaka City, Mitsuharu Okamoto, 44, also a resident of Osaka, and Yuki Sato, a 27-year-old resident of Kanazawa, of abandoning a corpse.
Endo denies the allegations. Meanwhile the other two suspects admit to the charges, police said.
Kita worked at a hostess club in Kanazawa. Sato works at the same club, which is affiliated with a bar in Osaka that employs Endo.
Missing persons report
On the night of October 9, the family of Kita lodged a missing persons report with the Kanazawa-Naka Police Station. During the subsequent investigation, police found blood on the pavement of a road near her residence.
Based on an analysis of security camera footage, police believe Okamoto and Sato assaulted Kita on the road between 4:00 a.m. and 4:45 a.m. on the day she was reported missing.
Police suspect that Endo gave the order for the crime. Police arrested Sato on suspicion of inflicting injury on October 11. Okamoto was arrested two days later. During questioning, Okamoto revealed the location of Kita’s body.
Police are planning to apply charges of murder to the suspects.
