Police find human bone in sewage drain in Tokyo after murderer's confession

Thursday 29th May, 10:47 AM JST

TOKYO —

Police on Wednesday found a human bone in a sewage drain in Koto Ward, Tokyo, after murder suspect Takanori Hoshijima, 33, earlier told investigators that he cut the body of Rurika Tojo, a 23-year-old company employee, into small pieces and flushed some of them down the toilet

According to police, Hoshijima also disposed of some of the body parts in the garbage. The bone fragment will be examined later Thursday to determine if it is part of Tojo’s body.

› Login to comment

13 Comments

whatanidiot at 10:58 AM JST - 29th May

that is just awful ! how can the family have a proper closure when you know how that young woman died and was disposed of !! killing her was already too much !
Mr.Ken at 11:48 AM JST - 29th May

This kind of news just give more ideas to crazy people. Who would thought about flushing. Now probable another crazy person would like to try this.
telecasterplayer at 11:53 AM JST - 29th May

Supposedly the Tokyo Police examined the missing woman's apartment and didn't stumble across a gruesome crime scene akin to butcher shop like the guy claimed. Either they missed evidence, or he cleaned up REAL good.. weird, no matter from which direction you look at it.
Altria at 12:02 PM JST - 29th May

Either they missed evidence, or he cleaned up REAL good.. weird, no matter from which direction you look at it.

He must have boned up real well on body disposal.
romulus3 at 04:10 PM JST - 29th May

human bones are not small...he must have dumped most of them. man, what a sick guy. I cannot fathom the mess and gore. my heart breaks for the womans family knowing what she went through. I cant imagine the anguish and horror. I would definitely want to get my hands on the guy...and then what? hell hath no fury etc? maybe I would just breakdown and cry and ask him why? Go death penalty!
DoctorTofu at 07:40 AM JST - 30th May

Wow, are you telling me Japanese also commit crimes? Inconceivable! I thought it was just those awful foreigners!

Jokes aside though, this is a really sick, twisted crime. I can't even imagine a level of cruelty and cold-bloodedness that a person has to have to chop up a body into pieces small enough to flush down the toilet - skull, ribcage, pelvis bone and all... Ugh.
Blue_Tiger at 09:05 AM JST - 30th May

Knowignt hat Yuki Muto got a slap-on-the-wrist 7-year sentence does not give me a lot of confidence that this man will get the justice he deserves for such a crime.
Fair dinkum! at 02:50 PM JST - 30th May

I have no idea what kind of toilet this guy has, but I know I can't flush anything bigger than a wad of six tissues down my toilet. That means, this demented twit has had to cut her body into pieces half the size of a fist to flush them. The police searched this guys apartment twice while the remains (or part there of) were still in the apartment, but they didn't find anything. Either this guy is a magician or the the key-stone cops have been at it again.
Zaphod at 03:13 PM JST - 30th May

telecasterplayer:

" Supposedly the Tokyo Police examined the missing woman's apartment and didn't stumble across a gruesome crime scene akin to butcher shop like the guy claimed. Either they missed evidence, or he cleaned up REAL good.. "

No, he took her back to his apartment, where he did the butcher work in between his TV appearances. The cops only interviewed him at his door initially. Had the bothered to look inside his apartment, they would have found the bloodbath in his bathroom cubicle. Very similar to the Lindsay Hawker incident; same police procedure
nigelboy at 03:39 PM JST - 30th May

Catch 22.

Sure it would of been nice if the Police were allowed to search every tenant's apartment to find at that point, a "missing woman". But then, people here will be crying out about invasion of privacy.

According to the recent Yomiuri article, the police got 170 or so tenants in the building to give their fingerprints including that of Hoshijima. However, it appears Hoshijima used some chemicals to badly damage his fingerprints which the police could not properly get his fingerprints. After a nearly a month, the police again got Hoshijima's prints but this time, with the injury healed, were able to recover the fingerprints which lead to his arrest, which lead to his confession.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20080529-OYT1T00965.htm
eiver at 04:29 PM JST - 30th May

human bones are not small...he must have dumped most of them. man, what a sick guy. I cannot fathom the mess and gore.

yeah, it must have been a gruesome sight. and how he was able to eat, sleep, and use the toilet in that same room afterwards is even more disgusting.
conqueror_of_Uranus at 04:58 PM JST - 30th May

A fan of Jeffrey Dahmer, no doubt.
European1 at 05:56 PM JST - 31st May

people this is very cruel crime, but take into account word in headline "Confessed". Well, maybe beaten to confess because Police screwed up and couldn`t find any evidence so they were waiting as usual when someone to turn to them itself.