TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police are investigating what is believed to have been a group suicide after three bodies were found inside a vehicle parked in the village of Hinohara on Monday, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (Dec. 17).
At around 10:50 a.m., a passerby tipped off police about the discovery of “a car [with its windows] taped shut and containing three bodies” on a mountain road.
Officers from the Itsukaichi Police Station found the bodies of two women in the driver’s and back seats. The body of the man was in the passenger seat.
The bodies of the persons, all aged roughly in their 20s, did not exhibit any external wounds. They are believed to have died within the two days before the discovery, police said.
In addition to the tape along the edges of the windows, police found burned charcoal briquettes inside the vehicle. The inhalation of carbon monoxide fumes released by such briquettes is a common means of suicide.
Police are now seeking to identify the bodies.
The location of the discovery is near the western border of Tokyo with Yamanashi Prefecture.
