SAITAMA (TR) – Saitama Prefectural Police are searching for two men in connection with the death of a third man whose corpse was found inside a stolen vehicle in Wakoshi City, reports NHK (May 12).
At around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, a local resident in the Shirako area tipped off police about the vehicle, which had been parked in the same location inside an apartment parking lot for an extended period.
Officers arriving at the scene several hours later searched the locked white van and found the decayed body of 31-year-old Kazumasa Iwabuchi, of no known occupation, in the back seat.
The body was covered by cloth that was bound by rope such that Iwabuchi’s feet were visible. An examination of the body revealed several stab wounds to the upper body, at least one of which extended to a vital organ, police said.
Police later said that the results of an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be loss of blood. Iwabuchi is believed to have died around one month ago, according to Nippon News Network (May 12).
Police also later revealed that the van, registered to a company in Tokyo’s Itabashi Ward, was stolen early on April 14. In security camera footage shot just before, the two men wanted in the case are seen walking toward where the vehicle was parked.
The footage also shows the vehicle driving off, presumably with the pair inside. Police also confirmed that it was parked in the parking lot in Wako beginning on April 26.
Police are seeking to question the pair in the case, which is being treated as abandoning a corpse.
