A severed body believed to have passed nearly 15 years ago has been found in a freezer in an apartment in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture.
The Hyogo police department said Monday that the body, discovered on Saturday, has been identified as Yutaka Nishiguchi, who lived in the apartment.
An autopsy revealed that Nishiguchi died around December 2011, when he was 42 years old.
The police department has set up an investigation headquarters for the possible case of body abandonment and?will also investigate the possibility of murder.
According to police sources, a resident of the apartment building called the police via the building¡¯s management firm on Friday afternoon, reporting a strange smell.
The next day, police officers found the body, which was separated around the navel. The upper and lower body parts had on a T-shirt and trunks, respectively.
The freezer measured 87 centimeters tall, 94 centimeters wide?and 53 centimeters deep. The electricity had been cut off to the apartment.
There were no blood stains or signs of a robbery in the apartment, which is located about 700 meters northwest of JR Motomachi Station.
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