CHIBA (TR) – Following the apprehension last week of a 46-year-old man wanted for a murder that took place nearly two decades ago, police have revealed that a second man sought in the case is likely dead, reports Kyodo News (Sept. 4).
At Narita International Airport on September 3, police arrested So Kamiya upon his arrival from South Africa.
Police accused him of confinement in connection with the murder of 26-year-old Shinya Kogawa in 2003. After the incident, he fled Japan.
According to investigative sources, a second male suspect wanted in the case, Tomoyuki Matsui, who would be 48, is believed to be the man found hanged by from a tree along a beach in South Africa in December 2016.
A suicide note, written in Japanese, that was found with the man’s body had Matsui’s signature. Police plan to use a DNA analysis to confirm the identity of the man.
On September 17, 2003, several persons abducted Kogawa, the former manager of a high-end club, in Chiba Prefecture and drove him to an apartment in Toda City, Saitama Prefecture.
After strangling him at a camp site in Yamanashi Prefecture, they dismembered his body with a saw. The following month, his body was found in a forest in the town of Okutama, Tokyo. Police later arrested seven other male and female suspects.
After the incident, Kamiya and Matsui, the suspected ringleader, fled Japan for South Africa. Police later obtained arrest warrants on suspicion of murder and abandoning a corpse. They were also placed on an international wanted list.
Kamiya surrendered at the Embassy of Japan in Pretoria, South Africa on August 21. “I want to go back to Japan,” he said. “I have run out of money and can’t flee [any longer]. I carried out the Okutama case.”
The murder took place after Kogawa resigned from his post at the club. He then got into a dispute over money with Kamiya and Matsui.
