KUMAMOTO (TR) – Kumamoto Prefectural Police have arrested a 67-year-old man in connection with the death of a woman found murdered along a road in Kumamoto City last week, reports NHK (Sept. 13).
Early on Sunday, police arrested Kazuhiro Kumagai, of no known occupation, on suspicion of abandoning a corpse.
At around 8:30 a.m. on September 7, the body of Chisato Narahara, 35, was found lying face-up in a gutter of a road near Kumamoto University’s Joint Research Center for Human Retrovirus Infection in Chuo Ward.
On Saturday night, police took Kumagai, who is believed to be an acquaintance of the victim, in for voluntary questioning after locating him at an unspecified location in the northern part of the prefecture. He has admitted to the allegations.
Narahara was an AIDS researcher at the center. On September 9, her backpack was found at the Honjo Campus of the university about 500 meters from where her body was discovered.
According to police, the backpack contained her wallet and laptop computer. Her mobile telephone has not been found.
Police previously said that the results of an autopsy showed that she died from suffocation due to strangulation around the neck.
Narahara was last seen leaving work at around 5:00 p.m. on September 6, the day before her body was found.
Police are continuing the investigation on suspicion of murder.
