Bloodstains have been found inside a car belonging to a 25-year-old man arrested over last week's discovery of two burnt bodies on a riverside north of Tokyo, investigative sources said Monday.
Ryoken Hirayama, who has been arrested on suspicion of mutilating corpses by setting the bodies on fire at the site in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, also purchased adhesive tape, gasoline and a portable canister, the sources said.
They said Hirayama has told investigators that he bought the items "as instructed," with surveillance camera footage confirming the purchases were made at stores in Tokyo and neighboring Saitama Prefecture.
Police are investigating whether others may have been involved in the death and corpse damage of Ryutaro Takarajima, 55, and a woman believed to be his wife. Takarajima runs several eateries in Tokyo's Taito Ward.
The pair's bodies were found last Tuesday morning by a passerby with their hands and feet bound, and their heads covered in what appeared to be plastic bags and adhesive tape.
A portable canister was located nearby, with Takarajima's belongings also found in Hirayama's car.
Security camera footage showed the two victims walking with somebody other than Hirayama in the ward's Ueno district around 9:30 p.m. the day before their bodies were discovered.
They then apparently traveled by rental car to Tokyo's Shinagawa district, where footage showed them with several other individuals around 11:30 p.m. in the last confirmed sighting of them alive.
Police believe the victims were taken to another location in Tokyo before being transported in Hirayama's car to Tochigi Prefecture.
Hirayama, who turned himself in last Wednesday, said during voluntary questioning before his arrest that was not involved in their murders and only lent his car.
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25-yr-old man arrested over finding of 2 burnt bodies north of Tokyo
2 burnt bodies found on riverside north of Tokyo
