A man suspected of fatally stabbing a 30-year-old woman in a car in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, on Sunday night, has been found dead in a hotel room in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, police said Tuesday.
Police said the 36-year-old man, whose name has not yet been released, apparently committed suicide, Sankei Shimbun reported. His body was found on Monday afternoon. The man was being sought in connection with the murder of Kanako Osawa from Niigata City.
A passerby saw Osawa’s body sprawled in the driver's seat of a rental car near JR Takasaki Station at around 7:30 p.m. Sunday and called 110. Osawa was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead about one hour later due to loss of blood from at least six knife wounds. No knife was found in the car.
A few hours earlier, a witness had seen a man in a suit and Osawa having a heated argument in the car which was parked under elevated tracks about 300 meters from the east exit of Takasaki Station.
Police said Osawa and the man, who is married and has two children, had been in a relationship after meeting at their workplace and that Osawa had consulted Niigata police four times since June about trouble she was having with him and that he had assaulted her at a hotel.
