A Metropolitan Police Department patrol car. (Mainichi/Kota Yoshida)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Police are set to arrest a couple in their 20s for allegedly disposing of the body of an 18-year-old high school student in Yamanashi Prefecture near Tokyo, investigative sources said Tuesday.

       The man and woman, believed to be married, admitted under questioning to having dumped the girl's body and also hinted about killing her, the sources said, adding that the police will pursue a murder investigation.

       After going missing on Saturday, Kana Washino, a senior at a private high school and a resident of Tokyo's Sumida Ward, was found dead in a storage shed in a mountain area with bleeding around her chest.

       The girl had left home at around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, telling her mother she planned to go see friends and would return later that afternoon. Her mother called the police at around 6:30 p.m. as she had not come home and could not be contacted.

       According to the sources, security camera footage showed the high school student getting into a car on a road near her home. The vehicle was found in Nagano Prefecture on Monday night and the couple told investigators they had disposed of the girl's body in neighboring Yamanashi Prefecture.

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