Police found severed body parts in a canal on Wednesday near Bangkok, after a local man being held by police said he had abandoned the body of a missing 79-year-old Japanese man.
Police found the body parts, including a head and legs, in several plastic bags after searching the canal in Samut Prakan, which is adjacent to the Thai capital.
A DNA test will be conducted to confirm whether the body parts are those of Yoshinori Shimato, a Japanese-language teacher in Bangkok.
The man accused of abandoning the remains, who drives a taxi, told investigators that Shimato lost consciousness after he went to a hospital with the man's wife on Sept. 21. The man said he cut the body into pieces, carried them in his taxi and dumped them in the canal.
The man said he acted alone and denied killing Shimato, according to the police.
The man's wife was arrested earlier this month on a theft charge for withdrawing 700,000 baht (about ¥2.32 million) using an ATM card belonging to Shimato. She was later released but was then detained again, along with her husband, for further questioning.
The woman was an acquaintance of Shimato. After losing contact with him, members of his family visited his room and found the woman there, according to the police.