KYODO NEWS - Nov 10, 2017 - 02:00 | Urgent, All

Police have identified all nine of the dismembered bodies found at an apartment near Tokyo late last month, including three high school girls with the youngest aged 15, officials said early Friday.

The bodies were found in the apartment of 27-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi, who was arrested by police on Oct. 31 and has since confessed to killing the nine. The police had been trying to identify the nine bodies through DNA analysis and other means.

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9 dismembered bodies found in man's apartment near Tokyo

According to the officials and investigative sources, the victims included Kureha Ishihara, a 15-year-old high school student from Ora, Gunma Prefecture, and two 17-year-old high school students from the cities of Saitama and Fukushima -- Natsumi Kubo and Akari Suda.

Also killed were Hinako Sarashina, a 19-year-old female university student, and Hitomi Fujima, a 26-year-old woman from Saitama Prefecture, and a 21-year-old female company worker, 20-year-old man and 25-year-old woman all from Kanagawa Prefecture -- Mizuki Miura, Shogo Nishinaka and Kazumi Maruyama.

The police on Monday identified one victim as Aiko Tamura, 23, from the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji, the only victim identified by name so far.

The nine bodies were placed inside cooling boxes in Shiraishi's apartment in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture. Parts of the bodies displayed multiple cuts and some portions had already been reduced to bone, according to the police.