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Lyon Court Orders DNA Database Search on Trace From Narumi Kurosaki’s Pillow in Zepeda Retrial

The decision follows a defense motion in the Chilean defendant’s third trial over the 2016 disappearance of the Japanese student.

Ce croquis d'audience, réalisé le 17 mars 2026, montre le ressortissant chilien Nicolas Zepeda, accusé du meurtre en 2016 de son ex-petite amie japonaise, lors de son troisième procès devant le tribunal correctionnel de Lyon
Taeko Kurosaki, au centre, la mère de Narumi Kurosaki, accompagnée de membres de sa famille, au palais de justice de Lyon, le 17 mars 2026
Des dossiers et des scellés du dossier à l'encontre du Chilien Nicolas Zepeda dans la salle d'audience lors du procès à Besançon le 29 mars 2022
Des photos de la Japonaise Narumi Kurosaki, assassinée en 2016, présentées avant le troisième procès du Chilien Nicolas Zepeda,à Lyon, le 17 mars 2026

Overview

  • Judges approved submitting a faint unknown DNA trace from Kurosaki’s pillow to the national genetic database at the request of Nicolas Zepeda’s lawyers.
  • Other defense bids for added inquiries were denied, including a renewed request to Facebook for IP data tied to messages sent after Kurosaki vanished.
  • The database check will proceed alongside hearings without altering the two-week trial schedule, the court said.
  • Prosecutors continue to argue a premeditated killing based on converging phone and GPS data, rental-car movements, purchases of combustible, matches and a bleach sprayer, and a TGV ticket in Kurosaki’s name that was never used.
  • Zepeda, extradited from Chile and twice convicted before those verdicts were annulled, again pleaded not guilty in Lyon as Kurosaki’s body remains missing.