Overview
- A resident reported a foul odor on June 19, and police forced entry with a locksmith the next day to find a clothed, dismembered body inside a large freezer in a locked Chuo Ward apartment.
- Authorities identified the victim as 57-year-old Yutaka Nishiguchi and say forensic study points to a death around December 2011, meaning the remains went undetected for more than a decade.
- Medical examiners were unable to determine a precise cause of death and investigators said the body was not frozen when it was discovered.
- Hyogo Prefectural Police arrested 50-year-old Aki Mochizuki; she admitted abandoning the body and reportedly hinted that she killed Nishiguchi while prompting questions about the exact circumstances of his death.
- Police have formed a special investigative headquarters to focus on the timeline, how the remains were stored, and possible charges for mutilation and abandonment of a corpse, with prosecutors already treating the concealment as legally actionable.