Photo/Illutration The vacant apartment building in Osaka’s Chuo Ward where the head of a transport ministry official was discovered on Feb. 3. (Mami Okada)

Police have identified a dismembered body found last month as that of a 52-year-old transport ministry official who lived in the same apartment building as the man arrested on suspicion of abandoning the corpse.

Takamichi Kamioka's body was discovered on Jan. 25 in a mountainous area on the outskirts of Higashi-Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, near the city’s border with Nara Prefecture. Kamioka's head, arms and legs were missing.

Police arrested Hiroto Oki, 28, on Feb. 3 on suspicion of disposing of the corpse.

On the same day, investigators found Kamioka’s head in a vacant apartment building in Osaka’s Chuo Ward based on information from the suspect. A cooler bag believed to have previously contained the head was also found.

An autopsy indicated that Kamioka died of suffocation and his head was severed afterward.

The victim lived alone in an apartment in Osaka’s Chuo Ward. Oki lived in another unit in the same building, according to police.

Surveillance footage from a convenience store ATM in Osaka on Jan. 10 shows a man resembling Oki withdrawing a total of 500,000 yen ($3,200) from Kamioka’s account.

Oki has admitted to the allegations of abandoning the body. Police are furthering their investigation on him for a possible murder charge.

Kamioka served as the accounting manager at the transport ministry's Aeronautical Safety College located in the prefecture's Izumisano city.

He worked from home on Dec. 27 and was scheduled to travel to the Philippines on the same day to meet his wife, Elaine, but never arrived.

Following requests from Elaine and Kamioka’s family members in Japan, police searched his apartment on Jan. 1 and found his suitcase packed for the trip. There was no sign of a struggle in the room.

Kamioka and Elaine, 26, had just married in the Philippines in November, and the couple was planning to go on their honeymoon to Palau during the New Year's holiday.

“I’m filled with anger and sadness,” Elaine said in disbelief. “I want to know what made the suspect do this.”

Police began investigating Oki’s possible involvement in the case after his family reported him missing on Jan. 20.

Subsequently, surveillance footage dated Dec. 28 emerged that showed Oki traveling to Higashi-Osaka with a suitcase.

(This article was compiled from reports by Satoshi Tazoe, Tomoki Miyasaka and Sakiko Kondo.)

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