Although her body is not found, the Japanese student missing since late 2016 Besançon "died" according to the findings of the investigators. A letter rogatory will soon be sent to Chile, where the main suspect resides.
No body, but a suspect and a certainty: the Japanese student Narumi Kurosaki, 21 years old at the end of 2016 in Besançon, "died," according to investigators who are preparing to send a rogatory commission to Chile where lies the main suspect.
"We are convinced today that, unfortunately, this young woman has died [...]. We do not see what can still be done to find the body, " said Monday the Besançon prosecutor Etienne Manteaux during a press conference.
The 21-year-old, who lived in a room in the Cité Universitaire of Besançon, disappeared in the night of December 4 to 5, 2016. Two years after the fact, and despite important research, her body never been found.
Investigators suspect the former Chilean boyfriend of Narumi, Nicolas Zepeda Contreras who returned to his country shortly after his disappearance, to be the author of the crime.
Boyfriend as the main suspect
"During the month of September, she separated from him [...] He did not accept this separation. We found a film where the young Chilean is threatening against Narumi, " detailed Etienne Manteaux. The young student was seen in a restaurant with Nicolas Zepeda Contreras in Ornans, Besançon, a few hours before his disappearance.
The same evening, several students from the university residence heard "cries of anguish, fear and a thud," said Monday the prosecutor Besancon.
No trace of blood was found in the room, still according to the prosecutor who is considering a death "by suffocation" and now considers that Nicolas Zepeda Contreras is, "more than ever, the main suspect" .
A rogatory commission sent to Chile
"The thesis of premeditated murder is retained," he added. "It will be shown that from December 1, he will go to a supermarket to buy a box of matches, five liters of flammable products, detergent," said the prosecutor.
An international arrest warrant was issued against the young man, "but it was not implemented by Chile," regretted Etienne Manteaux.
An international rogatory commission will be sent "in the coming weeks" so that the examining magistrate in charge of the case can interrogate the suspect on the spot.
French justice now considers two possibilities: "either the official denunciation of the facts for a trial to take place in Chile, or a default trial before a Assize Court in France, in the absence of Nicolas Zepeda" , has detailed the prosecutor.