YAMANASHI (TR) – Yamanashi Prefectural Police are investigating what is believed to have been a group suicide after four bodies were found in a tent in a mountainous area of Kofu City on Wednesday, reports NHK (Feb. 13).
At around 10:30 a.m., the manager of the office at Arakawa Dam tipped off police after finding the four bodies inside a camping tent pitched on a plaza of the dam.
In addition to the bodies of three men and one woman, officers arriving at the scene found burned charcoal briquettes.
On Tuesday night, another staff member of the office observed the members of the group pitching the tent. They are believed to have arrived at the site via a rental car found parked nearby.
With the bodies of the persons not exhibiting signs of external wounds, police suspect that they took their lives through the inhalation of carbon monoxide fumes released by the briquettes.
Police are now seeking to identify the bodies.
