A 38-year-old man was stabbed to death in his home in Sakai, Ibaraki Prefecture, and a trail of bloody footprints believed to be those of the perpetrator stretched about 150 meters from the scene, police said.

Officers responding to a call from the wife of auto mechanic Masashi Onozato at around 2:15 a.m. Monday found him in a second-floor bedroom lying on his back with stab wounds to his left chest and other parts of his body.

Onozato was pronounced dead after he was transported to a hospital.