MITO, IBARAKI PREF. ¨C Police arrested a 28-year-old man on Wednesday on suspicion of murdering his former girlfriend, a pregnant manicurist whose body was found in an apartment in the city of Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, late last year.
Haruka Komatsumoto¡¯s husband, 27, found her body in the apartment¡¯s entryway after returning home from work, and made an emergency call.
According to the Ibaraki Prefectural Police, the suspect, Takumi Ouchi, from the town of Shirosato in the prefecture, repeatedly called the mobile phone of the 31-year-old victim and sent messages via social media last summer. He was also trying in and after October to find where she lived.
Ouchi is suspected of beating Komatsumoto on the head with a blunt object and fatally stabbing her in the neck in the apartment room on Dec. 31. He has denied the allegations.
Four days before the attack, Komatsumoto called the prefectural police to talk about being stalked but hung up without providing her name or contact information, the police said in explaining why they were unaware of the situation.
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