A man was arrested early Thursday in Kyoto Prefecture after the body of his 11-year-old son was found in a local rural area following weeks of searching since the boy went missing, police said.
The 37-year-old is suspected of abandoning the body of his son, Yuki Adachi, in Nantan sometime between March 23 and Monday. Police were questioning the father on Wednesday, and said he has admitted to the allegation.
The cause of death has yet to be determined.
Search efforts for the boy, a student at Sonobe Elementary School in Nantan, began after his whereabouts became unknown on March 23.
His father, whose name is also Yuki Adachi in English despite a small pronunciation difference in Japanese, told the police he dropped the boy off near the school that morning.
A teacher noticed the boy had not come to school and notified his mother. The father then made an emergency call around noon that day.
The boy’s shoeless body was not found until Monday alongside a farm road in a wooded area, about 2 kilometers from the school.
His school backpack and a pair of black sneakers matching those he was said to be wearing were also found in separate locations away from both his home and where the body was discovered.
An autopsy found no obvious external injuries on the body, while the death is estimated to have occurred in late March, roughly coinciding with when his whereabouts became unknown.
© KYODO
