Decapitated head found at Sapporo home of arrested doctor, daughter

The decapitated head of a man found dead in a Sapporo hotel earlier this month has been discovered at the home of a doctor and daughter who were arrested on suspicion of damaging his body, police said Tuesday.

The head was discovered Monday during a search of the property of the psychiatrist, Osamu Tamura, 59, and his daughter Runa, 29, in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Tamura’s 60-year-old wife, Hiroko, was arrested on the same charge Tuesday, the police said.

Members of the press gather on July 25, 2023, outside the Sapporo house of a family arrested in a case where the headless body of a man was found at a hotel in the northern Japan city earlier in the month. (Kyodo)

The police are investigating the relationship between the daughter and the victim, identified as 62-year-old Hitoshi Ura, who was found naked and decapitated in the bathroom of a hotel room on July 2.

Investigators said they plan to conduct an autopsy of the head. An earlier autopsy of the body revealed that the cause of death was hemorrhagic shock.

There were no signs of a third person entering the hotel room, with the daughter believed to have committed the act on her own. Osamu, a psychiatrist at a hospital in Sapporo, is suspected of dropping off and picking up his daughter.

Ura and another individual, believed to be the daughter, checked into the hotel around 10:50 p.m. on July 1, with the other person leaving alone at about 2 a.m. the following day, according to police.

Runa Tamura (C) is transported to the Hokkaido prefectural police headquarters in Sapporo on July 24, 2023. (Kyodo)

Ura’s body was discovered later on July 2 by a hotel worker who went to the room to see why he had not checked out by the afternoon.

Security camera footage showed no one else entered or left the room between 2 a.m. and 3 p.m. on July 2.

Police have yet to find Ura’s belongings, including his clothes, phone and identification.

The incident occurred in the Susukino area of the city where many short-stay “love hotels” are located.

Photo taken on July 3, 2023, shows a hotel in Sapporo where the body of a man was found the previous day. (Kyodo)

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