OSAKA -- Police said Monday they arrested two men the previous day on suspicion of murdering the president of a local household fittings company who has been missing since July.
Fumihiro Hioki, 33, an employee of the Tsurumi Ward-based company, and Toshinori Nakamura, 39, a real estate agent, confessed to murdering Shizuo Takeguchi, 48, on July 20, police said.
Based on the pair's confession, investigators found Takeguchi's body covered in concrete in a drum in a rental garage in Hino Ward on Sunday night.
Nakamura and Hioki reportedly also said Yasunori Tarumoto, 24, another company employee, took part in the murder of Takeguchi. Tarumoto went missing Aug. 1, and his body was found eight days later in a pond in Kyoto Prefecture.
According to the confession, Hioki, Nakamura and Tarumoto beat Takeguchi on the head with lead pipes and strangled him July 20 at the company's office. The three took his body to the garage, placed it in the drum and buried it in concrete, police said.
Investigators found traces of blood at the office, and DNA tests showed it to be Takeguchi's, police said. They suspect a dispute over money between Nakamura and Takeguchi led to the murder.
A security camera at Takeguchi's company showed him entering the building on the evening of July 20. It also recorded Hioki and Tarumoto carrying a large cardboard box out of the building at midnight the same day, according to police.
Police said they are investigating whether Tarumoto killed himself or was murdered by the other two. An autopsy found that eight of Tarumoto's ribs were cracked, they said.