Body in Sapporo park identified as woman missing since panic call to fiance

Let me get this straight: ... A park... just 500 meters away... almost a month later... woman walking a dog found the body.

I'm sorry but this tells you everything you need to know about the incompetence of the police. Good luck finding the murderer.

i am really surprised to hear such type of news about sapporo...we thought sapporo has no crime

Given the fact that the body was apparently so badly decomposed that they couldn't tell the gender at first, it seems like the smell alone would have helped any police follow up searchers locate the body.

Apparently, the local police went through the woman's area with a fine-tooth comb after she went missing.

@M3M3M3

the police combed the area after the initial report. the body could have been dumped later when they finished searching the area.

The news mentions that she was buried under earth and leaves, but that part of her body was/became exposed.

@rickyvee

the police combed the area after the initial report. the body could have been dumped later when they finished searching the area

... hmm I don't know about you but my money is on police incompetence rather than elaborate conspiracy.

@ wontond Just after an argument too. But wait, there are other things not mentioned.

1) She was caught on a convenience store video camera about 10 minutes after leaving the apartment, presumably alone, so she really did go for a walk, and who ever killed her would have to have been at a distance.

2) Due to an analysis of where the signal came from her phone (and therefore presumably not that of her fiance) was last used where she was found (! M3M3M3's post is sounding more fair) so I am not sure how anyone could have arranged to pick up the phone back at the apartment while phone from the place where she was found which was 700 (not 500) meters away.

There is something very fishy about that phone call story.

Approximately 20 minutes later, Ito called her fiance and said, “Call the police” and then the connection was cut off.

I seem to recall some other female acquaintance on the TV talking about how the fiance got the call. But what was this other female doing with the victim's fiance at 01:00 in the dead of night, after the victim left the apartment after the argument?

Poor girl.

Without knowing all the facts everyone loves to be a television detective. There's no way yet of knowing if the body was not disposed there after the fact (yes there's CCTV of inside the store) but none of the actual area.

It's quite easy to say incompetence on any one's part from the armchair of one's own home.

Some data you people are using is wrong...

The phone was last use in the AREA of 500 m, centered from the mobile phone antenna set near the JR station. So the 500 m is the wide of the circle form edge to edge, with the center point somewhere near the Statiion.

700 meters... is marked form the place the body was found to the house of the lost woman.

Since the last phone call was made somewhere inside the range of the antenna of the station, and assuming the antenna is set at the top of the lost woman house... that will mean the call was made from a point 250 meters (at most) from her house.

Additionally, dead people bodies can be move you know.....

Some "detectives" around here should have notice that, for sure, right?...

Some detectives may not have noticed that the is presumably a record of the antenna where the fiance received a call, presumably at some distance from the victim. I guess it might be possible to set up a sort of sound activated Pitagora Switch to accept a call at a distance, thereby giving oneself an alibi, but it sounds unlikely. RIP, and sympathy to the bereaved.

Ok detectives, i still have suspicions about the BF's involvement. There is no reason why he couldn't have used her phone to call himself in one hand and answered his phone with the other. Both phones were within the 500m area and it is impossible to determine exactly where. Also, if she had just had a huge fight with him and was walking to cool off, why would she call him and not the police if she was in trouble? There was also an extended period of time after the phone call was made to the time he contacted police. There is also the fact hat Sapporo is relatively crime-free and there have not been any other incidents or suspicious people reported in that area. Too many things point back to the BF being the culprit.

Moderator: Sorry, we are not permitting readers to slander the fiance.

Both phones were within the 500m area

Where they?! Ah, in that case I stand corrected, and agree with Disillusioned and now understand Daniel. Do you have a link to that?

I'm also not sure why my post was deleted, the fiance and the other woman who claims to have heard the phone to the fiance are surely in the forefront of the police's minds.

Moderator: There is no other woman mentioned in the story, and we are not permitting readers to slander the fiance.

i am really surprised to hear such type of news about sapporo...we thought sapporo has no crime

Guess you're missing all the news about the bombs at kobans then.

I feel for the woman who found the body. Must have been horrible. Also feel for the victim and her family. This kind of thing is happening far too often.

elaborate conspiracy?!?! dumping a body after the fact isn't that elaborate and definitely not a conspiracy.

i am really surprised to hear such type of news about sapporo...we thought sapporo has no crime

You really have to get your head out of the snow, seeing as how it's Hokkaido you are in. There is crime EVERYWHERE in Japan, if you think otherwise you are have to be either cut off from the world, but you are not since you post here, or blind to reality.

Just because you dont keep up with it Japan has a lot of crime that just doesnt get reported nationally, or even locally in many cases.

Don't be so naive.

TMarie, I would be her DOG found the body....while tugging on it's leash.

I do believe a month ago there was still snow on the ground in Sapporo and other parts of Hokkaido. Maybe it would be a little difficult to find a body at that time. My friends from up there are just now posting photos of their cherry blooms and spring flowers, so I guess the missing bodies from the winter will show up as well.

It also seems strange that in a cool area like that her body became so badly decomposed in just over three weeks.

Lilian Dew - don't worry, it was obvious to me that you were being sarcastic when you commented that there was no crime in Sapporo.

I had such hopes she would be found alive. Prayers for the family.

Given the fact that the body was apparently so badly decomposed that they couldn't tell the gender at first, it seems like the smell alone would have helped any police follow up searchers locate the body.

Which suggests very strongly the body was put there later. I don't think this is on the police. Someone's going to extraordinary lengths to not get caught.

I feel for this woman's family. This must be the most heartbreaking news imaginable.

kiwi and anyone else thinking about decomp and smell,

It is actually not a simple equation of death = bugs, bacteria, rot and smell.

There are many ways bodies can decomp, and various outcomes. e.g., We often here of bodies discovered at home where the relatives were continuing to get retirement money of the deceased, and ppl say "what about the smell", but in fact it is very easy and common for bodies to naturally mummify.

In this case, it is possible that (some of) the surface flesh froze and fell off making id difficult, but not leading to smell. Also, animals eating at surface flesh, w/o smell from insect/ bacteria decomp is possible. It is possible that decomp was proceeding normally but at a slow rate, giving off only a little odor at a time, possible that the ventilation in the park (wind + location) resulted in the smell being kept weak, or somehow being absorbed by leaves/ earth/ other smells (nearby stinky latrine etc).

Or of course that it stank somewhere else and then the body was moved, as others said.

Or some combination of the above.