Police in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, have arrested an unemployed 32-year-old man on charges of abandoning a corpse.
According to police, Yu Shiraiwa disposed of the body sometime toward the end of December 2013, Fuji TV reported Thursday. Police believe that the body was a 19-year-old youth who had gone missing in late 2013 and will carry out DNA analysis on the remains.
In January, the missing youth's father contacted police to report his son's disappearance and said that Shiraiwa might know the boy's whereabouts.
Police said Shiraiwa told them he and the missing youth lived together some time before the boy’s death. After further questioning, Shiraiwa told police on Wednesday where the remains were buried.
© Japan Today
11 Comments
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Commodore Shmidlap (Retired)
We'll be hearing about more charges in this one pretty soon.
CannondaleCommuter
So sad, but you have to wonder under what (possibly unsavory) circumstances it would take the father over a year to contact the police and report his son missing. Feel bad for the son and the father.
Christopher Glen
What is this absurd law in Japan? Either he killed the person in question, or he didn't
sensei258
That's just the initial charge, which will be updated to murder after more investigation. In Japan, it's all about the conviction rate. It's easy to prove he abandoned the body, 'cause he told them where it was buried.
ArtistAtLarge
Christopher Glen, this is pretty common law in most countries, the biggest reason being health and safety for everyone else, let alone some kind of dignity after death.
arcieres
I think its an absurd law too; the real crime should be to kill someone.
nath
As sensei258 said, this is just the initial crime they charge him with. This is so they can hold him while they gather evidence to charge him with murder. They will hold him for as long as they can on this charge, and when it comes time to let him out, they will charge him with murder.
Commodore Shmidlap (Retired)
While it's probably useless to reiterate, I'm going to just on the hopes of getting through-- abandonment of a corpse is simply a preliminary charge. The main, or "real" (if you prefer) charge-- more than likely murder-- comes later. Of course it seems "absurd" if you refuse to accept that simple explanation. Once you understand that, it makes perfect sense. And that's the way it's done here.
Christopher Glen
Then they should hold him on suspicion of murder. That makes more sense
nath
No it doesn't - if they don't collect enough evidence in the period of time that they can hold him, then they have to let him out. This way they can hold him for longer, so they don't have to let him out while they collect evidence.
Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land
If they don't have enough evidence to charge him, they should let him out. I believe 24 days is the length of one holding period.
The police need to be more strictly controlled, not given a freer hand. They'll have the guy confessing to anything after a few weeks of 8 hour a day interrogations.