YAMANASHI (TR) – Yamanashi Prefectural Police have confirmed that a dismembered corpse found in the mountains of Minami-Alps City last week is that of a missing elderly woman, reports TV Asahi (July 6).
On Sunday, police said the results of a DNA analysis confirmed that the body is that of 71-year-old Ayako Nakatsuji.
Three days before, a member of a search crew noticing a strange smell found a human head under a piece of water supply equipment. The crew later found a hand, foot and clothing covered by leaves nearby.
The location of the discovery is about 100 meters from where Nakatsuji, an artist, came to paint a river scene on June 2. She was reported missing thereafter. Her car and mobile telephone were located nearby.
About 15 years ago, Nakatsuji moved from Kanagawa Prefecture to Minami-Alps due to her interest in the scenery, police said.
The case is being treated as abandoning a corpse.
