Police have arrested the common-law husband of a woman whose parents' burned bodies were found in Tochigi Prefecture last month, they said Tuesday, suspecting he played a leading role in the crime.
The number of suspects in the case now totals six after the arrests of Seiha Sekine, a 32-year-old corporate executive who worked as a manager at the couple's restaurant management company, on Monday and another acquaintance of the couple on Tuesday.
Sekine and Ryo Maeda, a 36-year-old corporate executive, were arrested on suspicion of damaging the bodies after the burned corpses of restaurant operator Ryutaro Takarajima, 55, and his wife Sachiko, 56, were found on a riverbank in Nasu, eastern Japan, on April 16.
A real estate company operated by Maeda was managing the empty home in Tokyo where the couple was allegedly assaulted before their bodies were abandoned, the sources said.
The four other suspects did not know the couple, according to the sources.
One of the four, Hikaru Sasaki, 28, was quoted as telling police that another person had asked him in early April to "process" the couple, according to the sources.
So far, none of the suspects have been arrested for murder. Sekine and Maeda have been arrested for burning the couple's bodies with the help of the four in the early hours of April 16, the sources said, adding the police had searched Sekine's home.
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