Tokyo police arrested a 47-year-old man on Saturday on suspicion of killing a 29-year-old woman in an apartment in Tokyo's Roppongi district in 2018.
The suspect, Nobuaki Takahashi, whose address and occupation are unknown, told the police that he had nothing to say about the case.
The suspect left for Malaysia the day after the 2018 murder. The MPD obtained an arrest warrant in June 2019 and issued an international arrest warrant through Interpol.
Takahashi is suspected of killing the woman by repeatedly striking her on the head with a blunt object at his apartment in Roppongi on either Oct. 11 or 12, 2018.
According to investigative sources, the cause of death was brain damage resulting from a skull fracture. A bloodstained dumbbell was found inside the room, and the MPD suspects that it was used as the murder weapon.
Takahashi and the woman are believed to have met at a restaurant in 2018. In July of that year, Takahashi was arrested on suspicion of assaulting the woman, but he was not indicted as the complaint filed by the victim was withdrawn.
Malaysian authorities informed the Japanese side that they had detained Takahashi and would deport him on Thursday.
The MPD sent investigators to Malaysia and arrested the suspect aboard a flight bound for Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture.
In a statement issued through her agent following the arrest, the woman's 60-year-old mother said that she had spent over seven years filled with overwhelming longing to see her kind and hardworking daughter, as well as with anger and hatred toward the suspect.
She added that her daughter was not in a relationship with the suspect, but was instead a victim who was controlled by him and struggled under the terror of his violence.
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