NARA (TR) – Mie Prefectural Police are investigating a 37-year-old company employee after he confessed to abandoning the bodies of his girlfriend and her university-student daughter in a mountainous area of Nara City, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (July 27).
Takahiro Imakita, a resident of Nara’s Horencho, was arrested on suspicion of abandoning a corpse. Based on his statements during voluntary questioning, police on July 17 located two bodies wrapped in green tarps, dumped in the brush about five meters down a slope near the Nabari River in the Tsukigase-dake area.
Due to severe decomposition and skeletonization, autopsies could not determine the exact cause of death.
“I transported the two bodies using my car, and I abandoned them by myself,” Imakita told investigators, admitting to the allegations.
Never showed up
The victims are Imakita’s 44-year-old girlfriend, who lived in neighboring Mie Prefecture, and her 20-year-old daughter.
The grim discovery was preceded by a bizarre chain of events. On February 6, the girlfriend called emergency services to report a suspicious man peering into her car. The following day, Imakita called police from her home, claiming someone had “thrown liquid” at his girlfriend. During that incident, the woman fell and sustained a head injury, prompting an appointment to file a formal report at the Iga Police Station on February 10.
However, she never showed up.
Security footage confirmed Imakita had gone out with the mother and daughter on February 9. When the woman missed her police appointment the next day, a detective visited her home. The officer coincidentally ran into Imakita outside the residence. When asked about the woman’s whereabouts, Imakita feigned ignorance, telling the officer, “I can’t get in touch with her either.”
Both women had vanished
Despite the sudden disappearance, police failed to launch a formal investigation for three months. Authorities initially assumed the woman was hospitalized or staying with relatives based on neighborhood rumors. Furthermore, when the daughter’s university contacted the police in April to report she had stopped attending classes, a lack of communication between the station’s criminal and community safety divisions stalled the case from moving forward.
The case finally gained traction in May after Iga City Hall requested a welfare check, leading police to realize both women had vanished. A special investigative task force was established on May 21.
Mie Prefectural Police believe the bodies were dumped between February 9 and 15. Investigators are now scrutinizing Imakita’s involvement in the events leading up to the deaths of the two women.
