Body Believed to Have Passed 15 Years Since Death Found in Freezer

Kobe, June 22 (Jiji Press)–A severed body believed to have passed nearly 15 years since death has been found in a freezer in an apartment in Kobe, the capital of Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan. The Hyogo police department said Monday that the body, discovered on Saturday, has been identified as Yutaka Nishiguchi, who lived in the apartment. An autopsy revealed that Nishiguchi died around December 2011, when he was 42 years old. The police department has set up an investigation headquarters for the possible case of body abandonment. It will also investigate the possibility of murder. According to police sources, a resident of the apartment building called the police via the building’s management firm on Friday afternoon, reporting a strange smell. Shortly after midnight that day, police officers found the body, which was separated around the navel. The upper and lower bodies had a T-shirt and trunks, respectively. The freezer measured 87 centimeters tall, 94 centimeters wide, and 53 centimeters deep. The electricity had been cut off to the apartment. There were no blood stains or signs of a robbery in the apartment, which is located about 700 meters northwest of JR Motomachi Station. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]