Former stepfather of American suspect: ‘He was quiet and shy’

HYOGO (TR) – The former stepfather of an American male in custody in connection with the death of a 27-year-old woman, who had gone missing, says that he found him to be rather reserved.

“I was shocked [when I heard about the incident],” said Benny Dacy, the former stepfather of Yevgeniy Vasilievich Bayraktar, during an interview with Nippon News Network (Feb. 25) in New York. “When he was around me, he was quiet and shy.”

On Wednesday, Hyogo Prefectural Police arrested Bayraktar, 26, for allegedly abandoning the corpse of Saki Kondo, a resident of Sanda City, Hyogo Prefecture, who was last seen earlier this month.

On February 24, officers found what was later confirmed to be the head of Kondo inside a suitcase in a residence in Osaka’s Nishinari Ward. The following day, a torso, two arms and two legs likely belonging to her were found in mountainous areas of Osaka and Kyoto prefectures.

“As far as I know, he was never in trouble before,” continued Dacy, who lived with Bayraktar when he was young. “He was kind to people and animals.”

When asked whether the suspect had a particular interest in Japan, Dacy said that he did not know of one. “He had an interest in video games,” Dacy said. “I got the feeling that he had a certain bashfulness about him, but he had friends.”

Met on Tinder

According to Tokyo Sports (Feb. 28), Bayraktar arrived in Japan at the end of January. The suspect is residing in the country on a 90-day tourist visa. Since January, he is believed to have rented several residences, including the one in Nishinari, on a short-term basis.

Investigative sources with the Hyogo police have revealed that the suspect met the victim on social-networking services Tinder and Matchapp. They communicated via Instagram.

Kondo was found to have gone missing when she failed to report to work sometime after February 15. Her mother contacted police on February 17 to make a missing persons claim.

Police later revealed that security camera footage showed two persons, believed to be the victim and the suspect, entering another residence in Osaka’s Higashinari Ward early on February 16.

Two days later, the suspect was seen carrying a large bag out of the residence. The footage does not show Kondo ever leaving the premises.

Investigative sources have also revealed that a person believed to be Bayraktar was spotted in security camera footage heading in the direction of the Shimamoto area of Osaka on February 20. The area is where the torso and two arms were found on February 25.

On February 22, police first arrested Bayraktar in Nara Prefecture on suspicion of confining Kondo in the Higashinari residence. Upon his initial arrest, the suspect denied the allegations. He has declined to comment after he was arrested a second time for abandoning a corpse.

Investigative sources have confirmed that four or five other women visited the Higashinari residence while the suspect resided there. The safety of all of the other women has been confirmed, the sources said.

Born in the Ukraine

Sources have told The Tokyo Reporter that Bayraktar was born outside of the U.S. in 1991. Bayraktar’s mother, a Russian, emigrated to the U.S. to marry Benny Dacy in around 2000. They later divorced.

Bayraktar’s natural father is a Bulgarian doctor who lived in the Ukraine. The suspect attended William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach, New York starting in 2007.