France tries Chilean accused of murdering Japanese ex-girlfriend

Besancon, France – A Chilean man will go on trial in France on Tuesday accused of the homicide of his Japanese ex-girlfriend, Narumi Kurosaki, who disappeared in 2016 in a high-profile case that has gripped three continents.

The trial of Nicolas Zepeda, who denies killing Kurosaki, goes forward after he was extradited from his nation to France in 2020.

Kurosaki, a superb scholarship pupil then age 21, arrived within the jap French metropolis Besancon in the summertime of 2016 to study the language. She disappeared on Dec. 4.

Her former boyfriend Zepeda, whom she had damaged up with a yr earlier than, was the final particular person to see her alive.

Prosecutors allege that Zepeda was unable to cope with the breakup, coming to Besancon to kill Kurosaki in her pupil dorm room earlier than dumping the physique within the forests of the rugged Jura area.

However to date no hint has been discovered of Kurosaki’s physique.

“Her mother and father know after 5 years that their daughter couldn’t have vanished or dedicated suicide … they’ve little question that Mr. Zepeda killed her,” the household’s lawyer Sylvie Galley stated.

Kurosaki’s mom and youthful sister will journey from Tokyo to attend the trial.

Now 31, Zepeda has been in custody in Besancon since his extradition from Chile, which French judges needed to battle laborious to safe.

He denies any hyperlink to the disappearance of Kurosaki, whom he met at Japan’s College of Tsukuba in 2014.

He has been held in solitary confinement due to the case’s excessive media profile.

Zepeda’s lawyer Jacqueline Laffont stated that her shopper was “virtually relieved to lastly be capable of clarify himself, to be heard, he’s coming in decided.”

The Chilean has admitted spending the night time with Kurosaki in December, who he claims he bumped into by probability whereas touring by way of France.

However a number of witnesses reported listening to “screams of terror” and thuds “as if somebody was putting” — though none referred to as the police on the time.

A few of Kurosaki’s mates acquired unusual messages within the following days from her social networking accounts, which police consider had been despatched by Zepeda.

It was greater than per week later, on Dec. 13, {that a} college administrator reported her lacking.

The suspect had already left for Chile after spending a number of days with a cousin in Spain.

No signal of blood or a wrestle was present in Kurosaki’s pupil room, and all her belongings had been nonetheless there aside from a suitcase and a blanket.

Zepeda turned himself in to Chilean police and stated that Kurosaki had been alive when he left her after spending the night time collectively.

He shortly turned the prime suspect after he was discovered to have gone out of his approach by way of a forest, and to have purchased matches and a container of flammable liquid.

His father Humberto Zepeda informed French weekly JDD in February that the costs had been “a biased accusation with no scientific proof … based mostly on suspicions and conjecture.”

However prosecutor Etienne Manteaux stated final yr that there was “an enormous quantity of technical knowledge” referring to the case, together with cellphone information, the areas of Zepeda’s car and his debit card information.

Prosecutors have additionally trailed “witness testimony from individuals near him that disprove Mr. Zepeda’s model of occasions” claiming an opportunity encounter that ended with the previous couple in mattress.

“It’s a tough case, like every legal case the place there’s no physique,” stated Randall Schwerdorffer, a lawyer for the Japanese pupil’s new boyfriend on the time of her disappearance, who’s a joint plaintiff within the case.