HOKKAIDO (TR) – Hokkaido Prefectural Police have arrested the 49-year-old manager of a bar in the town of Hidaka after the corpse of a woman was found hidden inside a wall in the establishment, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (Jan. 10).
According to police, the body is likely that of a woman in her 20s who was last seen on the evening of December 31 last year and reported missing by her grandmother the following day.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of abandoning a corpse, Toshihiko Matsukura, who operates bar Lady Luck, admitted to the allegations. “I have no doubt that I hid the body by placing it inside the wall of the bar,” he said.
According to police, the body was placed in a recess about the size of one tatami mat at the bottom of the wall, with an opening blocked off with a wooden board.
The woman’s clothing was not disturbed. It has not been revealed whether there were any external injuries.
Prior to the discovery, Matsukura was questioned voluntarily. The body was later found inside the bar early on Saturday.
Police are continuing the investigation, including into whether Matsukura knows the circumstances of her death.
