KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have revealed that a 75-year-old man was found dead with his legs and hands bound inside his home in Yokohama City on Wednesday.
The case is being treated as murder. Police suspect that the incident is connected to a series of break-ins and robberies that have taken place in the Kanto area in recent weeks, reports NHK (Oct. 18).
At around 9:30 a.m., a female neighbor of the residence in Aoba Ward called police to say say that a window at the entrance had been open since the previous night.
Officers arrived to find Hiroharu Goto collapsed in a dressing room with his hands and legs bound with adhesive tape. He was confirmed dead at the scene.
An examination of his body revealed a substantial number of bruises, indicating that he had been assaulted.
Goto shared the residence, located about two kilometers northwest of Ichigao Station on the Tokyu Denentoshi Line, with his wife, who was out at the time of the discovery.
Subsequent investigations have revealed that approximately 200,000 yen in cash is missing from the home, police said.
Goto is believed to have died on the Tuesday, the day before his body was found. Upon the discovery, the front door was not locked and a nearby window was broken, leading police to believe that someone broke into the premises.
In addition, the house showed signs of having been ransacked, and there were also indications that multiple people entered the house while wearing shoes.
Since August, a series of robbery-murder cases have taken place in Saitama and Chiba prefectures and Tokyo. In these cases, the perpetrators were recruited through online offers of “high-paying work.” Police believe the murder of Goto is another potential case.
