IWATE (TR) – A 37-year-old man in custody for allegedly dumping the corpse of his wife in the mountains of Oshu City was last week further accused in her murder, police said, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (Oct. 30).
According to police, Yusuke Chiba, a company employee, strangled his wife, 36-year-old Megumi, at their residence in Ichinoseki City early on May 31, 2019.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of murder on October 30, Chiba admitted to the allegations. “Our relationship was in trouble, and we got into a fight on the day [of the murder],” the suspect was quoted by police.
Megumi lived with the suspect and their 4-year-old son at the residence in Ichinoseki.
When Megumi was reported missing, police were led to believe that she left the family’s residence on foot at around 6:00 a.m. on May 31, 2019 after getting into a dispute with the suspect.
Used a car to transport her body
On April 29 of this year, police working off a tip found a skull and other remains in the Maesawaku Seibo area of Mt. Otowa in Oshu.
Two months later, police said that the results of a DNA analysis confirmed that the body is that of Megumi.
On October 14, police accused Chiba of abandoning a corpse. He was sent to prosecutors at the Morioka District Public Prosecutors for the crime on October 30.
According to prosecutors, Chiba used a car to transport the body of Megumi from their residence to the mountain — a distance of around 20 kilometers — early on July 2, 2019.
