FUKUOKA (TR) – Fukuoka Prefectural Police have said that a body found in a riverbed in Tagawa City earlier this week is that of a missing elderly woman, reports Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting (June 25).
On Tuesday, the partially skeletal body, missing its head and left arm, was found amid some accumulated garbage near the mouth of the Onga River in the town of Mizumaki.
Two days later, police confirmed that the body is that of Sayoko Nakamura, a 90-year-old resident of Tagawa. A metal plate inserted during a surgical procedure that was found inside her body assisted in the identification.
On May 28, Nakamura told her daughter, who lives separately, by telephone that was headed to the hospital. She was not heard from again. The family then lodged a missing persons report with police.
Police are now seeking to determine the cause of death. The case is being treated as the result of foul play or an accident.
