TOKYO (TR) – In the first hearing of a male waterproofing worker accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend three years ago, the defendant has pleaded not guilty to allegations of murder.
Ryoma Atsumi, 33, is accused of stabbing his girlfriend, 18-year-old Yurika Nomoto, to death in a parked car on around June 7, 2023. He then allegedly abandoned her body in a mountain forest in the village Kosuge, Yamanashi Prefecture among other crimes.
“I did not stab her,” Ryoma Atsumi told the Tokyo District Court on February 18, reports Nippon News Network (Feb. 18).
However, Atsumi admitted to the charges of abandoning a corpse.
Wrapped in a blue tarp
In its opening statement, the prosecution pointed out that the defendant’s relationship with Nomoto had deteriorated by around May 2023. He then killed her with a knife while they were alone in the car.
After that, he called a male friend, 33, with the promise of lending him money. They together abandoned the body, wrapped in a blue tarp.
The prosecution pointed out that “the victim was last seen alive with the defendant in the car together. A friend who met up with the defendant shortly after the incident witnessed blood on the defendant’s arm and a person lying in the back seat of the car.”
The prosecution also stated that there is video evidence that Atsumi filmed showing the body inside the car.
In response, the defense argued that the friend was also in the car at the time. The defense said, “After a dispute arose, the victim took a knife out of her bag. The friend then tried to intervene, which ended [in the victim] being stabbed.”
DNA
The friend is Toshiya Hori, who lives in Chiba Prefecture. He has already been convicted of abandoning a corpse.
Police said in 2023 that Atsumi had borrowed the car but abandoned it on a street in Edogawa Ward without returning it. When Tokyo Metropolitan Police examined the car in July, bloodstains were found on the back seat.
Nomoto’s father filed a missing persons report in November 2023. By then, the car had been scrapped. However, police analyzed the DNA type of bloodstains collected at the time and found that it was consistent with Nomoto’s DNA.
Hori emerged as a suspect after speaking with people close to Nomoto. A search was conducted in line with his statement, and police found Nomoto’s partially skeletal remains in the forest in Yamanashi on November 27. Her identity was confirmed through dental records.
