Suspect’s Motive behind Niigata Girl Murder Still Unclear

May 21, 2018

Niigata- One week after arresting a young neighbor man on the direct charges of leaving a girl's body on a train track in the central Japan city of Niigata, local police have yet to paint the whole picture of the incident, including why she was killed before being hit by a train.

During police interrogations so far, the suspect, Haruka Kobayashi, 23, has claimed that he took the girl into his car as he panicked at seeing her cry after being hit by the car, investigative sources said.

But his explanations cannot be trusted entirely, they noted.

The Niigata prefectural police are looking at the possibility of Kobayashi intentionally hitting the seven-year-old girl, Tamaki Omomo.

No witness has come forward who heard anyone crying or screaming, although a loud sound was heard by residents around the place and time the suspect claims the car accident occurred, the sources pointed out.

The suspect's vehicle had no obvious accident marks but did have traces of contact with a "randoseru" backpack, they added. Her randoseru school bag and sneakers were found near where her body was hit by the JR Echigo Line train on May 7.

A judicial autopsy has found that she was suffocated before being abandoned on the track.

Kobayashi has admitted to the body abandonment charges and also suggested that he killed her, according to the sources. The man emerged as a suspect, after the police last month referred him to public prosecutors on child prostitution and pornography charges.

The police believe that the girl was killed soon after she was captured on her way home alone from school. She and the suspect are not believed to have known each other.

Kobayashi has told investigators that he drove around the city with the girl's dead body before placing the body on the train track. Jiji Press