Photo/Illutration Investigators seize items during a search of the suspects’ home in Sapporo on July 24. (Masanari Matsuda)

SAPPORO–A woman and her parents were rearrested on Aug. 14 over the killing of a man whose headless body was found in a hotel here last month.

Runa Tamura, 29, was served a fresh arrest warrant on suspicion of murdering the 62-year-old Hokkaido resident at the hotel.

Her mother, Hiroko, 60, and her father, Osamu, a 59-year-old doctor, are accused of conspiring to commit murder.

The three were already under arrest on suspicion of damaging, abandoning and illegally possessing a body.

Police have not disclosed whether the three have admitted to or denied the allegations.

Runa is believed to have stabbed the man from behind in the bathroom of the hotel room in Susukino, the city’s busy nightlife district, in July.

She used multiple blades to decapitate the man, and then took the head to the family’s home, according to investigators.

The naked, headless body was found in the room on July 2.

Police searched the suspects’ home in Sapporo last month where they found the partially decomposed head.

Investigators said the daughter and her father bought a knife, a saw and a suitcase in the Hokkaido capital before the incident, and the father also purchased a large quantity of ice near the family home in the early hours of July 2.

Police also found that Runa met the man at a dance club in Susukino in late May with her father present.

Police believe the meeting led to some sort of conflict between Runa and the man.

Last month, a relative of the three suspects told The Asahi Shimbun that the man had earlier assaulted Runa.

(This article was written by Chifumi Shinya, Koki Furuhata and Jun Hasegawa.)

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