GUNMA — Police here have discovered the heavily decomposed body of a 59-year-old missing man from Maebashi City buried along a riverbank, following the arrest of an acquaintance from Saitama Prefecture who allegedly raided his bank account, reports the Asahi Shimbun (May 2).
The victim, identified as part-time worker Kazunori Obuchi, vanished on the evening of February 26. According to police, Obuchi was last seen leaving his workplace, a food-related company in Maebashi, shortly before 7:00 p.m.
The following night, a sister of Obuchi contacted police, reporting that her brother, who lived alone, had completely disappeared.
During the course of the missing persons investigation, security footage revealed that at approximately 8:15 p.m. on the night Obuchi vanished — just over an hour after he left work — a 50-year-old male acquaintance from Saitama Prefecture was caught using two of Obuchi’s bank cards. The suspect allegedly withdrew a total of 240,000 yen from an ATM at a convenience store in Maebashi.
Police arrested the acquaintance on suspicion of theft on April 22. The suspect has denied the allegations, telling investigators, “I don’t know anything about it.”
However, further investigations into locations connected to the suspect led police to the banks of the Tone River in Isesaki City. By April 29, searchers unearthed Obuchi’s remains.
Police stated that the body was found mostly buried in the dirt and had been there for some time. Due to severe damage and decomposition, a subsequent autopsy was unable to determine the exact cause of death.
Gunma Prefectural Police are treating the case as highly suspicious and believe the arrested acquaintance has knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Obuchi’s death. A full-scale investigation into the suspected homicide is ongoing.
