SAITAMA (TR) – A 53-year-old man in custody for abandoning the body of a female acquaintance at his apartment in Niiza City earlier this year has been further accused of stalking the victim, reports NHK (Feb. 25).
On January 9, police investigating the disappearance of Sanae Yamamoto, 51, found her body in the apartment of Arata Yamaguchi, 53, Niiza City. Police then accused Yamaguchi of abandoning a corpse.
Yamaguchi admitted to the charges during questioning. He also made statements implicating that he had murdered her.
In the latest development, police on February 25 further accused Yamaguchi of illegally obtaining the Yamamoto’s location information using a GPS device installed on her car.
Police believe the suspect ambushed and abducted Yamamoto based on the GPS information.
According to the police, he has remained silent during questioning on suspicion of violating the Stalking Prevention Act.
“Where have you been?”
The act of obtaining other people’s location information without their permission using GPS devices became illegal under the Stalking Prevention Act, which was revised in 2021.
According to the National Police Agency, the number of consultations regarding this type of stalking reached 513 nationwide last year and is increasing year by year.
Hidetaka Wakaume is a detective at an agency in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward that has been seeing an increase in consultations.
The detective says, “Many stalkers use GPS to identify their victim’s home. The next most common reason is to understand their behavioral patterns, such as whether they are at work or out with someone on their days off. The stalker will then appear before the victim. In pretending it is a coincidence, they’ll ask, ‘Where have you been?'”
Underside of a car
According to Wakaume, the most common place to attach a GPS device is the underside of a car with a magnet or adhesive tape.
Acquaintances or former partners who have been given rides by the victims in the past often hide them in the trunk or under the seats, says Wakaume.
In the murder of a woman in Ibaraki Prefecture last year, police believe the suspect learned her location by hiding a GPS device inside a gift sent to her parents.
Last December, the Stalking Prevention Act newly banned the attachment of small “air tags” to luggage and other items without permission.
Wakaume says, “This [method] could lead to a dangerous situation, such as your location being revealed, which could result an ambush. If you have any concerns, please contact the police.”
