A 7-year-old girl who was found dead on a railroad track in the city of Niigata on Monday had told classmates that a stranger talked to her on her way to school that morning, investigative sources said Wednesday.
Second-grade student Tamaki Omomo is likely to have been killed hours before her body was hit by a train, the sources said, as her body temperature was low and there were few signs of bleeding when she was discovered.
Her body was found after police were alerted by the driver of the train, which struck her at a low speed.
An autopsy found that the girl had been choked to death, the police said.
She left her elementary school with a friend at about 3 p.m. Monday. When she failed to return home by the evening, her mother contacted police.
Bruises on her face suggest that she was strangled some time before she was struck by the train at about 10:30 p.m. As another train had passed along the tracks about 10 minutes earlier without incident, the police believe the girl’s body was placed on the track during that time frame.
The Niigata Prefectural Police are checking security cameras near the railroad track as well as the route from her school to her home in the search for clues.
