28-year-old man served fresh arrest warrant on suspicion of helping girl commit suicide

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:14 JST, October 18, 2022

The Kanagawa prefectural police on Monday served a fresh arrest warrant to a 28-year-old man for purportedly helping a junior high school girl commit suicide. He was arrested on Sept. 27 on suspicion of abducting the girl.

The police alleged that Yuya Nozaki, a company employee in Midori Ward, Saitama, took the girl, who had implied a wish to kill herself on social media, by car to where she committed suicide.

Investigative sources said the girl is believed to have met Nozaki for the first time just before she committed suicide. The prefectural police are looking into the details of how the two got acquainted.

According to the police’s announcement and other sources, Nozaki allegedly took the girl by car to a spot near Lake Sagami in Midori Ward, Sagamihara, knowing that she was going to commit suicide.

The suspect confirmed the allegations, telling investigators that the charge was “correct.”

It is assumed that the girl jumped from a bridge into the lake. Her body was found in a nearby river. An autopsy did not clearly indicate the cause of death.

Nozaki saw the girl’s posts and contacted her via social media. He lured the girl out on Sept. 20 and met her for the first time.

The police believe that Nozaki took her to his home in Saitama before then taking her to the spot near Lake Sagami.

Her mother reported the girl missing to the prefectural police on Sept. 21, and police investigators identified a man who had been with the girl as Nozaki, mainly from security footage.