OSAKA (TR) – Police searching for a missing 18-year-old female university student discovered three bodies inside a parked vehicle in Ibaraki City on Wednesday afternoon, reports the Sankei Shimbun (May 13).
At approximately 1:05 p.m., searching officers located the car in a vacant lot in the Izumihara area. Inside, they found the teen along with two men. Used charcoal briquettes were discovered in the vehicle alongside the bodies.
The Ibaraki Police Station is investigating the deaths as a possible group suicide. According to investigators, none of the victims showed any obvious signs of external trauma.
The discovery was set in motion late Tuesday night. At around 11:45 p.m., a friend of the teen contacted police, warning them that the young woman might be planning to take her own life.
When officers contacted her relatives, they confirmed that the Osaka City university student had not returned after leaving her home at approximately 6:00 p.m. that evening. Her family filed a formal missing person report on Wednesday morning, prompting the police search.
Police are currently working to formally identify the two male victims, who are believed to be in their 20s and 40s and reside outside of Osaka Prefecture.
