A woman was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of damaging a corpse and abandoning it after a human skull and body parts were found in a condominium in Osaka Prefecture.
The suspect was identified as Terumi Morishima, 29, the occupant of the condo in the city of Kadoma, who described herself as an illustrator.
A 25-year-old female part-time worker in Kadoma who is an acquaintance of Morishima has been missing since last week, and the police believe the body parts are hers.
"A skull is in my room, but I don't want to talk about it now," Morishima was quoted as telling investigators during questioning.
After the father of the part-time employee reported to the police on Friday that she was missing, the police found that cash had been withdrawn from her bank account on Friday afternoon.
They then searched Morishima's condo on suspicion of theft and found the human remains.