A man found dead in his apartment in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, earlier this week might have been killed by another man out of jealousy over a girl, police said Wednesday.
Hideaki Suzuki, 28, was found in his apartment Monday with multiple stab wounds.
Two women who had been abducted the same day by the suspects in Suzuki's murder were released later Monday night and reported their ordeal to the police, leading to the discovery of Suzuki's body.
One of the three abductees, Yuka Tamura, 19, told the police that while they were being driven away in a car, she heard one of the three suspects say, "Suzuki had his hands on my girlfriend," the police said.
Another of the abductees, Ai Kanto, 21, was murdered. The police found her body 30 km away in Chichibu in the prefecture on Tuesday morning. Kanto was Tamura's roommate.
Tamura, Kanto and Emika Yamazaki, 25, were abducted after the three unidentified suspects -- two men and a woman -- broke into their rooms in the same apartment building.
The kidnappers initially dragged the women to Suzuki's apartment, also in the same building, where he was already dead, before taking them away by car.
Yamazaki was released in Kumagaya after being stabbed in the chest. She is in a serious condition.
Tamura was later dumped at a park in Chichibu.