Man Fatally Stabs Woman, Abandons Body in Forest after Brutal Attack on Estranged Wife

A major development is likely in the case of a young woman who was murdered and her body found in a mountain forest.

On January 26, the Metropolitan Police Department’s Investigation Division 1 re-arrested Ryoma Atsumi, 31, a waterproofer of undetermined residence, on suspicion of stabbing to death a woman he was dating. On the night of June 7 last year, he allegedly killed Yurika Nomoto, who was 18 years old at the time, with a knife in his car parked in a parking lot in Edogawa Ward. Atsumi has remained silent upon investigation.

“The body of Ms. Nomoto was found in a mountain forest in Yamanashi Prefecture last November.  Five months had passed since the incident, and the body was in an advanced state of decomposition, making the investigation difficult. The police decided to re-arrest the suspect for murder after carefully examining statements and physical evidence. Ms. Nomoto began dating Atsumi last spring, but just before the incident, she told those around her that she wanted to break up with him because he was persistent. Before his re-arrest, Atsumi stated that he stabbed Ms. Nomoto with a knife.”(National Newspaper Social Affairs Reporter)

FRIDAY reported the incident in detail in its December 22 issue last year. We would like to reproduce the article and look back at Atsumi’s violent personality and his relationship with the deceased Ms. Nomoto (some parts of the contents have been edited).

“We carried them together.”

Why was an 18-year-old woman deprived of her life and abandoned in the mountains?

On November 27 last year, Ms. Nomoto, a resident of Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, was found dismembered and dismembered in a mountain forest in Kosuge Village, Yamanashi, near Okutama. The Metropolitan Police Department arrested Toshiya Hori, 30, of Yachiyo City, Chiba Prefecture, on November 28, the day after the body was found, and Ms. Nomoto’s boyfriend, Atsumi, on December 1, both on suspicion of abandoning the body.

“Ms. Nomoto had been missing since June 7, and the investigation began when a missing persons report was filed on November 4. The defendant Hori admitted to the police that he dumped the body, and stated that he carried the body together with the suspect (at Atsumi’s request). Atsumi also admitted to the crime. Atsumi and Hori are high school classmates.” (Same source)

After dropping out of Tokyo Metropolitan High School, Atsumi spent his life drinking in his hometown while moving from job to job. About two years ago, he married an older woman he met at a tavern. After about a year, however, they became separated, and his wife returned to Kyushu, where she was born.

He met Ms. Nomoto around April when he approached her on the street, and they seemed to hit it off; in early May, Atsumi told his relatives that the suspect had started dating Ms. Nomoto. At that time, he also boasted to his relatives that “(Ms. Nomoto) told me that she likes people with a punch perm.

An employee of the snack bar where the suspect Atsumi used to frequent revealed the following about the two male assailants before the crime.

 

“Ryoma and Hori have visited the shop together about two times. Ryoma has been coming here two to three times a week for the past two years. He introduced Hori as a colleague from work, and the two seemed quite friendly.

Ryoma has a strong sense of justice. Once, he got drunk at the bar, and when a man was persistently bothering a woman, Ryoma warned him. The person who was warned by Ryoma then got heated and said, ‘Come outside!’ To that, Ryoma responded and it escalated into a fight.”

Atsumi was a popular suspect at the snack bar, but on the other hand, he was sloppy with money. An acquaintance of Atsumi’s told this magazine the following.

“He used to rent a parking lot to Ryoma, but he was always late in paying the fees. Ryoma was working as a plumber. Since he was like a one-person household, he did not have a fixed monthly income. When he saved up some money from his work, he would go around every day, and when he ran out of money, he would work again.”

The suspect, Atsumi, had a history of violence in the past that seriously injured a family member. A friend testified.

“He once broke a bone when he and his wife got into a fistfight. His wife is a strong-willed person, so she fought back, but it is only natural that she would get hurt when a man like Ryoma hits her.”

It seems that once his anger ignited, he had a tendency to lash out no matter who the opponent was.

“There was a time when he set a picture of himself and Ms. Nomoto cheek to cheek as his LINE profile picture. It seems that he frequently brought Ms. Nomoto into his home as well. The police authorities were investigating the matter because they believed that there was a problem between the two over their relationship and that it was related to Ms. Nomoto’s case,” said a reporter from the society department of a national newspaper.

Did Atsumi’s selfish feelings for Ms. Nomoto get the better of him?

From the December 22, 2011 issue of FRIDAY.