Police said Wednesday that two burned bodies found near a river in the town of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, last week have been confirmed to be those of a couple from Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said that DNA tests confirmed that the unidentified body of a woman was Sachiko Takarajima, 56, the wife of Ryutaro, 55, who had been identified earlier as the other victim.
The husband ran several drinking and eating establishments in Tokyo’s Ueno area, as well as other businesses.
On Sunday, Ryoken Hirayama, 25, was arrested for allegedly damaging the bodies. He had turned himself in to the police, saying that he may have been involved in the case.
According to informed sources, Hirayama has told the police that he had been ordered by a “certain individual” to dispose of the bodies and asked two acquaintances to handle the matter.
Hirayama met the two acquaintances in Tokyo the night before the bodies were found. The two borrowed Hirayama’s car, which is believed to have been used to transport the bodies to Nasu.
The police are investigating the possibility that the two detained and abused the Takarajimas at a house in Tokyo and then transported them to Nasu.
The bodies of the Takarajimas were found on the morning of April 16, with their heads covered with plastic bags and their hands and feet bound. Their cause of death was confirmed to be suffocation by strangulation.
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