SAITAMA (TR) – Saitama Prefectural Police have arrested a 23-year-old man and a male youth over the death of a man whose corpse was found inside a vehicle in Wakoshi City last month, reports NHK (June 13).
According to police, Kodai Igarashi, of no known occupation, and the youth, 19, left the body of Kazumasa Iwabuchi, also without an occupation, inside a white van parked in the Shirako area.
Igarashi is a resident of Kawagoe City. Meanwhile, the boy lives in the capital. Police did not reveal whether the suspects admit to the allegations.
On the morning of May 10, a local resident tipped off police about the vehicle, which had been parked in the same location inside an apartment parking lot “for a week.”
Officers arriving at the scene searched the locked white van and found the decayed body in the back seat. The body was covered by cloth that was bound by rope. The upper body had several stab wounds, police said previously.
Police later learned that the van had been reported stolen from a company in Tokyo’s Itabashi Ward. An examination of security camera footage showed persons believed to be the suspects taking the van.
Police later learned that the suspects were involved in a scam known as tokushu sagi, whereby victims are targeted over the telephone.
The results of DNA analysis conducted on evidence found inside the van proved to be a match for the boy, police said, according to Nippon News Network (June 15).
Police are now investigating the circumstances that led to the death of Iwabuchi.
