A 3-year-old boy was briefly kidnapped and stripped naked by a stranger in April at a shopping mall near where a 4-year-old boy disappeared Tuesday evening, police sources said Friday.
In addition, Nagasaki police have learned that similar incidents in which small boys were targeted had taken place at the shopping mall in recent months.
The 4-year-old, who went missing from an electric appliance shop in Nagasaki, was later found dead.
Police are looking into a possible connection between the April case and the kidnapping-murder of Shun Tanemoto, who was apparently thrown off the roof of a parking garage in central Nagasaki, the sources said.