New Details Revealed About The Man Found With A Japanese Woman's Head In His Suitcase After Allegedly Meeting Her On An Online Dating App
He was last seen with the missing woman.
Getty Images An American tourist was arrested in Japan after a woman’s severed head was found in his suitcase.
Yevgeniy Vasilievich Bayraktar, 26, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of confining a woman, 27, who has been missing since Feb. 16.
Law enforcement received a tip that Bayraktar was keeping a woman locked up in the apartment.
The severed head of what appears to be that of the missing woman was found Saturday as investigators were searching the apartment in Osaka’s Higashinari Ward that Bayraktar had been staying in since Feb. 12.
Sources told the Japan Times that the room was full of air fresheners but had no traces of blood. Police are still trying to identify the woman whose head was found in the suitcase but believe it to be that of the missing Hyogo woman.
The head was severed using a sharp-edged knife, investigators said.
The New York man, who had been in Japan since January for sightseeing purposes, had first denied any allegations against him and refused to answer any questions authorities asked, according to the Asahi Shimbun.
He later admitted to disposing of the missing woman’s body, police say.
The Hyogo Prefectural Police have devoted a special team to investigate the case, which the Japan Times said is being treated as an abandonment of a corpse.
Several arms and legs and a torso were found in nearby mountains two days after the severed head was discovered. They are believed to belong to the Hyogo woman.
The torso and two arms were uncovered in Shimamoto, and the legs were found in Yamashina. None of the woman’s belongings have been found.
The body parts were located based on information Bayraktar provided law enforcement, according to the Japan Times.
Bayraktar was the last person to be seen with the missing woman before she disappeared. Security cameras at the apartment where the suitcase was found show the missing Hyogo woman entering the apartment but she is never seen leaving, the Japan Times reports.
Bayraktar is seen leaving and re-entering the apartment with a large bag multiple times throughout the day in the camera footage. The Asahi Shimbun reports that another American traveler who booked lodging in the same building because of its low cost “expressed bafflement” upon learning of the severed head.
“I never heard of a trouble here, so I’m surprised,” a 73-year-old resident of the same building the severed head was found said. The woman from Sanda, Hyogo Prefecture, was reported missing after she told a friend she was meeting a man she met on a “social networking site” before leaving for Osaka.
Bayraktar and the woman had exchanged messages on social media before she fell off the grid. She was reported missing when she was unable to be contacted or located after her mobile phone died.
Sources told the Japan Times that other women had been seen with Bayraktar at the same apartment but were all confirmed alive and safe. A new warrant is to be served to the American man for disposing of and damaging a body.
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted in February 2018 and was updated with the latest information.
Sarah Gangraw has a degree in journalism and writes about all things news, entertainment and crime. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.