The Niigata Prefectural Police headquarters is seen in this 2019 file photo. (Mainichi/Yuma Hori)
NIIGATA -- Five bodies were found on Oct. 19 in a rental car parked in the central Japan town of Yuzawa, Niigata Prefecture, in a suspected group suicide.
Police received an emergency call at around 11 a.m. saying that people seemed to be dead in a car in a parking lot in the town. Officers from Niigata Prefectural Police's Minamiuonuma Police Station rushed to the scene and found the bodies of men and women in a van. Coal briquettes were inside the car and there were no noticeable injuries on the bodies, leading police to believe that it is highly possible they carried out a group suicide. Officers are investigating the details of the incident including the causes of the people's deaths.
According to the police station, the bodies are apparently those of two men in their 20s and 30s and three women in their 20s, based on their IDs and other evidence. All of them lived outside Niigata Prefecture, and their relationships to each other were not immediately clear. The person who found the bodies and made the emergency call knew one of the deceased and he had apparently been looking for them while keeping in touch with them via phone.
The scene is about 16 kilometers south of the Yuzawa interchange on the Kanetsu Expressway, and there are ski resorts and hotels in the area.
(Japanese original by Mayuka Ikeda, Niigata Bureau)
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