KUMAMOTO (TR) – Kumamoto Prefectural Police have arrested four persons in connection with the corpse of a man that was found in a vehicle parked in front of a hotel last month, reports TBS News (June 1).
At around midnight on April 7, Masatoshi Miyake, a 49-year-old employee in the automobile industry, Chihiro Hayashi, 20, Kazuaki Shiraishi, 50, and Norifumi Hidaka, 43, allegedly kidnapped Michihito Miyata, 44, in Fukuoka City’s Hakata Ward. They then brought him by vehicle to a parking lot of the hotel in the town of Ozu in Kumamoto.
According to police, the suspects are believed to have experienced money-related trouble with the victim.
On May 17, a passerby to the parking lot alerted police after observing a “foul smell” emanating from one of the vehicles. Officers arriving at the scene found the heavily decayed body of Miyake inside the back seat of the vehicle.
Both legs of the body had been bound with tape. The results of an autopsy did not reveal the cause of death, police said.
Miyata lived in Fukuoka City. Police later revealed that he rented the vehicle at an unspecified location in Fukuoka Prefecture in April. At some point thereafter, the family of Miyata lodged a missing persons report with police.
Police are further investigating the suspects on suspicion of murder and abandoning a corpse.
