KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police on Thursday re-arrested an American male for the murder of a woman whose corpse was found floating in a bay in Miura City, reports TBS News (Aug. 27).
Investigators from the Misaki Police Station suspect that Gregory Gumo, a 41-year-old marketer and promoter in the entertainment industry, killed Mariko Akitaya, a 42-year-old resident of Tokyo’s Meguro Ward, somewhere within Kanagawa Prefecture before dumping her body in Koajiro Bay.
On the morning of July 29, the body of Akitaya, a contract employee in the cosmetics industry, was found wrapped in a brown plastic sheet and floating about 20 meters off the coast in Koajiro Bay. A towing rope had been used to attach the body to a concrete block.
On August 6, police first arrested Gumo, a resident of Yokohama’s Hodogaya Ward, for abandoning the body of Akitaya.
Up until this point in the investigation, Gumo had denied participation in the crime. However, he now admits to dumping Akitaya’s body but not to murdering her. “She committed suicide,” the suspect is quoted by police.
With an autopsy revealing a large quantity of water present in Akitaya’s lungs, police believe she may have been thrown into water while alive. The cause of death was determined to be drowning. The corpse exhibited no signs of external injuries. The approximate time of death was July 28.
Security camera footage showed Gumo and Akitaya together inside a vehicle traveling in the direction of Atami City on July 27.
On the same day Akitaya’s body was found, Gumo was stopped by police as he attempted to travel to the United States on an international flight from Haneda Airport.
