OSAKA (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police have arrested a 41-year-old man living in Osaka City in connection with a body found packed in concrete inside a clothing case in an apartment in Yao City.
An investigative source on Sunday said that suspect Noriyuki Iimori told police that he had “transported the body from the house where my father used to live to the apartment building in early November last year.”
Iimori, who lives in Osaka City’s Hirano Ward, previously said that the corpse is that of his older sister’s daughter.
The incident emerged on February 25, after the manager of the apartment building in Yao reported that the previous occupant had left behind the metal clothing case.
Iimori’s father, aged in his 80s, lived alone in the apartment building from late October last year. However, he later moved out to enter a facility.
According to police, the metal clothing case measures 88 centimeters wide, 45 centimeters wide and 35 centimeters deep. It was found in a closet in the apartment.
During an imaging scan, a human figure was identified. The concrete was then broken to reveal a white-boned body of a person who stood about 1 meter tall.
Police will carry out an autopsy to determine the cause of death and identify the body.
“It is my older sister’s daughter”
Prior to living in the apartment, the father lived in a house in Taishido, about 200 meters away.
Regarding the body, Iimori stated, “It is my older sister’s daughter. I was looking after her. I packed her in concrete about 10 years ago. She was about 7 years old at the time.”
Iimori also said he had hit the girl. He had been taking care of her because his older sister had left home.
The body is believed to have originally been abandoned in the Taishido house. Osaka Prefectural Police are currently investigating the details, including confirming the sister’s whereabouts.
Police accused Iimori of abandoning a corpse on March 1. On Sunday, Osaka police sent Iimori to the prosecutor’s office on that charge.
