NANTAN, Kyoto Prefecture—The father of a dead boy searched the internet for ways to dispose of a body and deleted dashcam footage from his car when his son went missing, investigative sources said April 20.
The digital trail of Yuuki Adachi, 37, has led investigators to believe he took extensive measures to conceal his involvement in the disappearance of his 11-year-old son, Yuki.
An analysis of Adachi’s phone revealed searches for body disposal around March 23, the day Yuki was last seen alive.
Investigators also suspect Adachi moved his son’s body to several locations within Nantan to delay its discovery.
Police on April 18 searched a public restroom in the Rurikei tourist destination of the city, where they believe Adachi may have temporarily hidden the body.
The site, located about a 5-minute drive from the Adachi home, is in an area of forests and fields and includes men’s, women’s and lockable multipurpose restrooms.
Police cordoned off the prefectural road leading to site’s parking lot during the search. According to a local resident, the road is a well-traveled route for both local traffic and tourists.
When Adachi reported his son was missing, he said he had dropped off the boy at Sonobe Elementary School on the morning of March 23.
A police analysis of Adachi’s car, seized on April 17, found that a portion of the recording on the outward-facing dashcam on March 23 was missing. Investigators believe Adachi deliberately deleted the footage.
While the remaining dashcam footage confirmed Adachi’s car was near Sonobe Elementary School that morning, security cameras at the school did not capture footage of Yuki walking onto the grounds.
The last confirmed sighting of Yuki was by a relative who saw him eating breakfast at home on the morning of March 23.
Adachi was arrested on April 16 on suspicion of abandoning his son’s body between March 23 and April 13. He has reportedly admitted to that allegation, telling police, “There is no doubt that I did it.”
He also told police he was responsible for his son’s death, according to investigative sources.
“I strangled him to death,” he was quoted as saying. “After stopping by the school once (with my son in the car), I moved to another location and killed him.”
According to residents, Yuki’s mother, in a remarriage, wed Adachi, and people in the Nantan neighborhood began seeing him from around last autumn.
(This article was compiled from reports written by Michitaka Sato, Rika Hayashi and Ayaka Ishiyama.)
AloJapan.com