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Sachiko Ota was a young woman who was found dead inside of a travel case on the side of the road in the town of Shioya, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, in 2008.
She was identified in 2011. Kyomiki Hiragaki of Okegawa, Saitama Prefecture, has been charged with her death.
Original sketch of Ota
Case[]
On the evening of 18 September 2007, Ota was last seen by her younger brother at the bus stop near their home in Osaka Prefecture. It is believed that Ota was strangled with a towel sometime between the night of 18 September and the morning of 19 September at a business hotel in Koto Ward, Tokyo, where she had arranged to meet with a man she was in a relationship with. When five days passed without Ota contacting any of her family members, they immediately reported her missing.
On 1 June 2008, a travel bag was discovered on the side of the road in the town of Shioya in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. The bag had been wrapped in adhesive tape and string and contained the skeletal remains of a woman.
Identification[]
In late August 2011, Osaka Prefectural Police contacted the Tochigi Prefectural Police after seeing the reconstruction. Following a DNA analysis, the body was identified as Sachiko Ota from the city of Moriguchi in Osaka Prefecture, Japan.
More than three years after the discovery of her body, Kyomiki Hiragaki, the man whom she was having a relationship with at the time of her death, was arrested in January 2012. He had met Ota on an internet chat site and had a wife and child at the time of her murder. He claims he murdered her because he wanted to end the relationship, and they were having complications.
Hiragaki was sentenced to 18 years in prison for her murder. The statute of limitations for corpse abandonment had expired by the time of his arrest.
Sources[]
- Nikkei (Japanese):
- WN.com (Japanese)
- Mainichi Shimbun (Japanese) (archived)