Two Corpses Found In Sealed Refrigerator, Three Family Members Discovered Dead In Forest In Japan

Two gruesome corpses recovered from inside a sealed refrigerator in a residence earlier this week in Fukuoka City, Japan. Meanwhile, in a similarly horrifying discovery, the dead bodies of three family members were found in the mountains of Hakodate City, according to local authorities.

Fukuoka Prefectural Police officers entered a residence in the Yokohama area of Nishi Ward on Monday, June 28, and found two dead bodies crammed inside an industrial refrigerator. Authorities were summoned to the home after receiving an alarming tip from a relative of the homeowners, saying that the residents had “dropped out of contact” for an extended period of time, the Mainichi reported.

After police entered the house, they reportedly found the refrigerator taped shut and its power turned off. Based on evidence recovered from the house, which was once a liquor shop, police are investigating foul play in the mysterious case.

The residence is reportedly occupied by a man, his wife, and their son. Police believe that the bodies belonged to the older man and his wife. The son was reportedly not present when the police arrived at the residence. Authorities are seeking his whereabouts to question him regarding the case.

In a similar but unrelated incident, the dead bodies of three family members were found in the mountains of Hakodate City on Saturday, June 26.

A person living in the Masukawacho area alerted the police on June 26 morning about a “vehicle that appeared yesterday” on a vacant field, according to Tokyo Reporter.

Hakodate-Chuo Police Station officers rushed to the scene, about 10 kilometers from the center of the city, and found the bodies of a woman, 78, and her son, 49, inside the vehicle. Her 47-year-old daughter's remains were reportedly found hanging by the neck about 50 meters away. Police are treating the case as a forced triple suicide.

Law enforcement reportedly found a suicide note in the vehicle, believed to have been written by the daughter prior to hanging herself.

Based on evidence obtained from the crime scene, police have reason to believe that the daughter committed suicide after murdering her mother and brother.

In another incident, a Japanese woman was arrested on Jan. 29 earlier this year, after police found that she had allegedly kept her mother's body in a freezer for 10 years.

Yumi Yoshino, 48, reportedly found her mother dead and hid the body 10 years ago because she "didn't want to move out" of the Tokyo home she shared with the matriarch, BBC News reported.

Police did not find any visible wounds on the frozen body which had been bent to fit in the freezer. The authorities could not determine the time and cause of the woman's death.

The body was reportedly discovered stuffed in the freezer by a cleaner after Yoshino was forced to leave the apartment due to missing rent payments.

Yoshino was arrested in a hotel in Chiba, near Tokyo, on Jan. 29.