Kanazawa, Ishikawa Pref., Nov. 9 (Jiji Press)–The body of a woman has been found in a forest in central Japan, based on a statement by an unemployed man who was arrested for allegedly confining her. The police department of the central prefecture of Ishikawa arrested the man, Takashi Utsunomiya, 49, from the city of Hiroshima, western Japan, by Sunday. He is suspected of confining the woman in her 20s, a resident of the Ishikawa city of Nonoichi, in a car and driving from Nonoichi to Komatsu, another city in Ishikawa, against her will from around 5:15 a.m. Oct. 30 to 2:30 p.m. the same day. Utsunomiya told the police that he killed the woman and left her body in a mountain. Investigators found the body in a forest in the city of Awara in the central prefecture of Fukui, adjacent to Ishikawa, on Saturday. Based on his statement, the Ishikawa police department will continue investigating the case with in mind the possibility of serving him with a fresh warrant for allegedly murdering the woman and abandoning her body. The victim is Saya Nakada, a 26-year-old eatery employee, who was believed to be in a dating relationship with Utsunomiya. An autopsy determined that Nakada died of acute suffocation as she was strangled or smothered, and that about a week had passed when her body was discovered. Nakada consulted the Ishikawa police department in July, saying that she wanted to break off her relationship with Utsunomiya. On Thursday, her parents reported to the police that they were unable to contact their daughter. Utsunomiya emerged as a suspect partly from analysis of security camera footage. He was held in the city of Hiroshima, the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, on Friday. Utsunomiya has denied part of the alleged confinement of Nakada, telling police that he put her in the car but that he did not force her to get in the vehicle, according to investigative sources. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
