Security camera footage of four people in Kobe, one of whom is lugging a suitcase (Video footage provided by neighbor)

Photo/Illutration Police search an apartment in Kobe’s Nishi Ward where a 57-year-old grandmother was confined off and on between March and June. (Masaru Komiyaji)

KOBE--Police trying to unravel a strange case of confinement involving four siblings in their 30s faced a new twist in the case after the body of a 6-year-old boy, the son of a family member, was dumped in grassland in the neighborhood.

The body of Nao Hosaka was discovered June 22 in a suitcase left in a grassy area of Nishi Ward.

Security camera video footage obtained by The Asahi Shimbun shows four people presumed to be the four siblings walking with a suitcase near the boy’s home around 5 p.m. on June 19.

Hyogo prefectural police said the likely cause of death was traumatic shock based on an autopsy conducted June 23. They suspect the boy was physically abused because his back was covered with bruises, sources said.

Hyogo police arrested the four siblings on June 22 on suspicion of injuring and confining Nao’s 57-year-old grandmother between March and June in the closet of their apartment.

Police also believe the grandmother was swiped on her back with an iron pipe. She was taken into protective custody June 20 in Tarumi Ward after she fled the apartment when no one was around.

The four who were arrested are the children of the grandmother: Saki Hosaka, 34, Nao’s mother; Daichi, 32; and 30-year-old twin sisters Tomomi and Asaka. The six lived together in the Nishi Ward apartment.

Police referred the case to the Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office on June 24 on suspicion of injuring and confining the grandmother. Police are now focusing on the death of Nao.

Sources said Saki told police about the suitcase, leading to the discovery of the body.

Neighbors reported seeing a boy they believed was Nao screaming from the veranda of his home, “Help me!”

A 25-year-old man who works at a nearby company said he heard a boy crying out for help during the day in May. The man also said he heard an adult male shouting at night.

“I thought it was strange that I did not hear the child’s cries in recent days,” the neighbor said.

A 74-year-old woman expressed profound sadness that she was unable to help the boy. She said he often called out to her from the veranda, saying he could not leave.

(This article was compiled from reports by Akari Sugiyama, Masahide Miyajima, Akina Nishi and Kazutaka Toda.)

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