One of 9 Zama victims identified as 23-year-old Tokyo woman

November 6, 2017

TOKYO- One of the nine murder victims found at an apartment in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, last week has been identified as a 23-year-old woman from the Hachioji suburb of Tokyo, an investigation headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Department of the Japanese capital said Monday. 

The woman, Aiko Tamura, is the first of the nine whose identity has been confirmed in the high-profile case.

As part of the identification work, the MPD checked samples of the woman's DNA against those collected from her relatives.

Tamura went missing in late October. During the search for her, the police department discovered the nine dismembered bodies at the apartment of Takahiro Shiraishi, 27, who was arrested last Tuesday on suspicion of abandoning bodies.

Tamura is believed to be the last of the nine victims, according to investigative sources.

The MPD now suspects that a 19-year-old female university student from Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, and a 25-year-old woman from Kanagawa are among the other eight victims.

Earlier, three high school girls aged 15 or 17, from Saitama, the eastern prefecture of Gunma and the northeastern prefecture of Fukushima respectively, and a man and a woman in their 20s, both from Kanagawa, were found to be possible victims.

For the remaining victim, there are no major clues at present that may lead to identification, the sources said.

The suspect has admitted killing the nine victims at his apartment, the sources said.

According to the sources, Shiraishi told the police that he lied about having suicidal thoughts to women who expressed their wishes to kill themselves, in order to win their trust and get them to his apartment.

Shiraishi also said that he attacked some of the victims after giving them alcohol, sleeping pills or tranquilizers in the room. The police found sleeping pills in his room.

He told the police that he killed the victims after choking them to make them unconscious, according to the sources. Jiji Press