Security camera footage showing a car entering and leaving a parking lot where the body of 13-year-old Natsumi Hirata was found on Aug. 13 has raised suspicions that somebody in the vehicle was involved in her slaying, police said Thursday.
Officers had originally believed two separate cars were seen in video, in the city of Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture. But police confirmed that the footage shows the same car entering and leaving the parking lot shortly before Hirata's body was discovered.
Hirata, a first-year junior high school student from Neyagawa, Osaka, was found dead at around 11 p.m. Her face was covered by adhesive tape and there were multiple stab wounds on her body.