KUMAMOTO (TR) – Prosecutors have announced the non-prosecution of a deceased 44-year-old man over the alleged fatal bludgeoning of a male acquaintance in Kumamoto City four years ago.
On June 1, prosecutors with the Kumamoto District Public Prosecutor’s announced the non-prosecution of the man, a corporate officer whose name was not given.
“There was insufficient evidence to recognize him as the culprit,” prosecutors said, according to RKK Broadcasting Kumamoto (June 1).
At around 4:50 a.m. on August 30, 2017, the man was alleged to have repeatedly bashed Yoshihiko Mitsunaga, then 59, in the head and face with a wine bottle inside the victim’s second-floor apartment in Nishi Ward.
He was confirmed dead later that day, police said previously.
Setting his body on fire
Mitsunaga operated a used-goods store and several other businesses. The victim became acquainted with the man through that work, police said previously.
The man surfaced as a person of interest in the case after security camera footage showed his vehicle in the area of the apartment around the time of the incident.
At around 9:30 p.m. on the day of the killing of Mitsunaga the burned body of the man was found inside a workshop in Koshi City, Kumamoto. Police determined that the man killed himself by setting his body on fire.
Police sent papers on the man to prosecutors on suspicion of murder on March 30.
“With the suspect dead, the investigation was not conducted officially,” police said in commenting on why the man’s name was not revealed.
