The Yomiuri Shimbun
KOBE--The body of a young woman tied to a weight was found in a bag drifting in Osaka Bay on Friday, according to police.
At about 4:20 p.m. the 5th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters received a radio call from a vessel reporting an unoccupied rowboat drifting, according to the police. Japan Coast Guard officers in a helicopter spotted a floating black bag.
The bag contained the body of a woman the police described as 1.6 meters tall and clothed in a black shirt and blue-and-white stripe pants.
According to the Hyogo prefectural police, the woman had been dead for at least a week, and her legs were tied with a rope with a weight attached.
The police are investigating the case on suspicion of abandoning a body. An autopsy was to be conducted Saturday.
(May. 30, 2007)