A man who died in a November 2009 car crash has been referred to prosecutors over the slaying of a female university student around the same time, according to police.

The woman's body was found dismembered in a mountainous area after she went missing in Shimane Prefecture.

Yoshiharu Yano, a 33-year-old company employee in Masuda, Shimane Prefecture, is suspected of strangling 19-year-old Miyako Hiraoka before dismembering her body and abandoning it in a mountainous area of neighboring Hiroshima Prefecture, the police said.