Zama Man Discarded 9 Murder Victims' Belongings except Cash

Tokyo, Nov. 1 (Jiji Press)--A 27-year-old unemployed man arrested Tuesday after body parts of nine people were discovered in his apartment in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, has told police that he discarded all of their belongings except cash, Jiji Press learned Wednesday. The police believe the suspect, Takahiro Shiraishi, tried to cover up his involvement in the crime, according to investigative sources. On Wednesday morning, Shiraishi was sent to the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office from the Takao station of the Metropolitan Police Department in Hachioji, western Tokyo, on charges of abandoning bodies. In a police van, Shiraishi covered his face with his hands amid camera flashes from many reporters gathering in front of the police station. Shiraishi has told investigators that he murdered the nine people during about two months since he moved in the apartment in late August, and that one of his motives was to rob them of money, the sources said. The first victim was a woman around 20 years old and the second was her boyfriend, Shiraishi claimed, adding that he became acquainted with the couple through Twitter. The police believe he had contact with many of the nine people through Twitter and other social media. The nine victims' severed heads were found in cooler and other boxes in his apartment. Numerous leg, arm, rib and other human bones were also discovered. Shiraishi was quoted as saying that he dismembered the bodies in the bath and put out flesh and organs as garbage after stripping them off the bones. He stated that he wanted to dispose of the victims' heads and bones as well, but could not do so for fear that the crime would be detected. He also said it took three days to dismember the body of the first victim but only one day to finish the job for each of the other bodies. The police are working to identify the victims, eight of whom are believed to be women and the remaining one a man. A 23-year-old missing woman of Hachioji, not far from Zama, is believed to be among them. Shiraishi was in a psychologically unstable state from around June or July, when he was still living in his parents' house also in Zama, according to the sources. In May, he got a suspended sentence from a court in Ibaraki Prefecture for introducing a woman to an adult entertainment shop knowing that she would be forced into prostitution. END