Latest news with #Miharu
Tokyo Reported
22-05-2025
- Tokyo Reported
Man suspected of leaving wife's corpse in Saitama rental space for 14 years
SAITAMA (TR) – Saitama Prefectural Police have arrested a 50-year-old man who is suspected of leaving the corpse of his wife in a rental space in Tokorozawa City for more than one decade, reports NHK (May 21). Between mid-September 2011 and February 15, Hitoshi Hoya, of no known occupation, allegedly left the corpse of his wife, Miharu, inside a drum placed in the rented unit. Upon his arrest on suspicion of abandoning a corpse on Wednesday, Hoya admitted to the allegations. He also hinted at murdering Miharu. He was sent to prosecutors on Thursday. On April 18, an employee at a recycling company in Yoshikawa City alerted police about a body found in a sealed drum. The body later identified as being that of Miharu was covered in a blue tarp. The day before, drum — measuring about 60 centimeters in diameter and 90 centimeters deep — was picked up by the recycling company in Tokorozawa at the request of the management company of the rental space due to unpaid fees. Hitoshi Hoya (X) Hoya lived with his wife in Tokorozawa in 2011. Police believe that Miharu died over the summer that year. That September, Hoya entered into an agreement with the rental space. The cause of death is currently not known. Since police found external injuries on the body, the investigation is ongoing on suspicion of murder and injury resulting in death. Police first arrested Hoya in Tokyo last month for violating the Road Traffic Act for driving a vehicle that had not undergone appropriate inspections. The statute of limitations on abandoning a corpse is three years. However, police applied such charges under the view that the abandonment continued until February of this year, when he was still able to open the door to the space.
The Mainichi
22-05-2025
- The Mainichi
Tokyo-area man arrested after wife's body found in storage container
SAITAMA -- Police in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, arrested a man May 21 on suspicion of abandoning his wife's body, which was previously found in a drum container on the premises of a recycling company in the prefecture. The suspect, 50-year-old Hitoshi Hoya of no fixed address and unemployed, has reportedly admitted to the allegations and hinted at murder. The prefectural police are advancing the investigation with the possibility of charges such as murder and injury causing death. Hoya is specifically accused of abandoning the body of his wife, Miharu, sometime between mid-September 2011 and Feb. 15 this year. The couple lived together in the city of Tokorozawa at the time. She was placed in a container approximately 60 centimeters in diameter and 90 cm deep at a storage facility in the city. According to Saitama Prefectural Police, Hoya contracted the storage unit in September 2011. Police believe Miharu had died that summer. External injuries were found on the body, and investigations will focus on the cause of death. On April 17 this year, the drum container was retrieved by the recycling company in the prefectural city of Yoshikawa at the management company's request due to persisting unpaid storage fees. The body of Miharu, who was 39 in 2011, was covered in a blue tarp when she was found by a recycling company employee the next day. The drum reportedly had its lid sealed. The same month, Hoya was arrested in Tokyo for allegedly driving an uninspected light vehicle in violation of the Road Transport Vehicle Act and was afterward indicted. Although there is a three-year statute of limitations for abandoning a body, Saitama police determined that Hoya's obligation as the husband to properly take care of his wife's body meant he was still perpetrating the act of abandonment, putting it within the statute and leading to his arrest. (Japanese original by Yusuke Sato, Saitama Bureau)
