The apartment is in a residential area along the railway tracks of the Odakyu Odawara Line, about 600 meters from Sobudai-mae Station. Police arrested the man, 27-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi. Investigators found the bodies while searching for a 23-year-old woman who had disappeared, the spokesman said. The woman had contacted the man via social media seeking someone for a suicide pact. Shiraishi told investigators he killed the nine and attempted to conceal their bodies. “It’s true that I tried to hide the bodies of the people I killed to destroy evidence,” Shiraishi was quoted as saying by the police. Shiraishi had told police that he chopped up the bodies in a bathroom and a saw was found in his room. The police plan to carry out DNA tests in an effort to identify the deceased.
The building where the bodies were found
A man who lives on the same floor as the suspect said that noticed an “odd smell” when he walked past the apartment in August, but he hadn’t heard any strange noise or voices coming from the apartment. Information about the occupation of the suspect or about his motivation to kill people was not disclosed.
