KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested a woman and her daughter for allegedly leaving the corpse of the woman’s husband at a car repair shop in Yokohama City, reports NHK (April 6).
For a two-year period ending in May of last year, Hiromi Nakamaru, 68, and her daughter, 40-year-old Chie, left the body of Nakamaru’s husband, Ryoichi, in the repair shop, located on the premises of their residence in Seya Ward.
Upon her arrest on suspicion of abandoning a corpse, Nakamaru denied the allegations. “I don’t have a feeling that I abandoned [the body],” the suspect said. However, Chie admitted to the charges, police said.
About 20 years ago, Nakamaru and her husband began living separately on the property, with him residing in a break room for the repair shop.
Chie, a nurse, lodged a missing persons report with police in August 2018. “My father is missing,” she said.
In May of last year, Chie’s husband found mummified remains while cleaning the repair shop. “There is what appears to be a foot,” he said in alerting police.
Police later confirmed that the body is that of Ryoichi. He is believed to have died in May of last year. The cause of death is not known.
Police are continuing the investigation, including whether the suspects illegally collected the pension of Ryoichi.
