Man Arrested in Connection to Body in Rental Car; Body of 15-Year-Old Found by Police Thursday

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:37 JST, October 22, 2023

UTSUNOMIYA — The Tochigi prefectural police has arrested a man on suspicion of abandoning a body after a woman was discovered covered with a cloth and lying in the back seat of a rental car. The man was exhibiting suspicious behavior on a road in the same prefecture.

According to the police, officers on patrol spotted the rental car around 3:15 a.m. on Thursday. The deceased woman was identified as a 15-year-old first-year high school student from Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture. She appeared to have been killed around Tuesday, possibly from strangulation. Her body, except for her face and back, bore bruises and abrasions. On Sunday, Tochigi prefectural police searched the residence of the arrested suspect, Tatsuya Yasuzumi, a 28-year-old unemployed man from Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture. Investigators are currently looking into any connections between the two.