Police Search Home of Deceased Kyoto Boy

Nantan, Kyoto Pref., April 15 (Jiji Press)–Police on Wednesday searched the home of an 11-year-old boy in the city of Nantan, Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan, on suspicion of body abandonment, after he was found dead in a forest area in the city earlier this week following his disappearance last month. The Kyoto prefectural police apparently believed that the compulsory search of the home was necessary based on the circumstances related to the discovery of the body and the fact that several items seen to have belonged to the victim, Yuki Adachi, were found at distant locations. They have been proceeding cautiously with the investigation, including questioning relatives. Police investigators began arriving at the home in investigative vehicles from around 7 a.m. Wednesday. They were seen measuring the width of a road on the premises with tape measures and entering a structure believed to be a storage shed. They also took photographs of the garden and trees. A wide area around the site was cordoned off with police lines. The probe continued into the afternoon. The mysterious disappearance of the boy has drawn wide media coverage and public attention. The body of Adachi, a student at Sonobe Elementary School in Nantan, was found lying face up in the forest area about 2 kilometers southwest of the school around 4:45 p.m. Monday, according to the police. The body showed no signs of having been buried or otherwise concealed, and no visible injuries, such as cuts or stab wounds, were found. Adachi was discovered wearing a dark blue fleece, a gray sweatshirt and beige pants, but no shoes. He had been wearing black sneakers when he went missing. According to the police and the city’s board of education, Adachi went missing around 8 a.m. on March 23 after his father dropped him off near the school. His homeroom teacher noticed his absence around 8:30 a.m. but did not immediately contact his guardians, ending up doing so at around 11:50 a.m. The police mobilized a cumulative total of roughly 1,000 personnel to search across the city. The boy’s yellow school bag was found by a relative on March 29 in a mountain area about 3 km west of the school. On Sunday, black sneakers of the same brand he had worn were found at a location in the mountains roughly 6 km southwest of the school. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]