Police confirmed Saturday the death of a girl who went missing from a mountainside campsite in Yamanashi Prefecture in 2019, after DNA from a shoulder blade found nearby was confirmed to match hers.
Misaki Ogura was 7 when she disappeared shortly after arriving at the site in Doshi with family and friends in September 2019.
Her 39-year-old mother Tomoko, who had continued to search for her daughter, was informed the bone has been confirmed as Misaki's, the Yamanashi prefectural police said.
A skull fragment found April 23 near the mountainside could not be directly linked to Misaki, who lived in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, but it emerged Thursday that mitochondrial DNA testing found no mismatch with relatives' DNA.
The fragment was discovered about 600 meters east of the campsite Misaki disappeared from after she went to follow friends who had gone ahead. Further police searches found a pair of shoes, and the shoulder blade was recovered May 4 and subsequently tested.
Many details around the case, including Misaki's movements after disappearing, remain unknown. Police will continue to investigate the case both as a potential accident or crime, and searches of the mountain are ongoing.
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