Hokkaido Prefectural Police have arrested a former co-worker of a 23-year-old woman who was found murdered in her residence in Sapporo last year, reports Nippon News Network

Police have accused Akihiro Kumakura, 43, of strangling Ayumi Kimura to death at her the third-floor residence in Nishi Ward.

On the afternoon of November 4, 2017, Kumakura alerted emergency services after falsely claiming to have found her body in the bathtub of the residence, police said.

The results of an autopsy conducted on the body of Kimura revealed that she died due to suffocation.

According to a previous report, investigators said that the body of Kimura did not exhibit any external wounds. She was believed to have died two or three days prior to the discovery.

At the time, Kumakura was a co-worker of Kimura, who lived alone, at a hospital in the same ward. Two days before the discovery, the pair enjoyed a meal together, a witness told police.

According to police, the arrest of Kumakura was based on a DNA analysis of evidence in the case. The suspect has declined to comment on the allegations.