Shock over killings

Serial killer fear after police find severed heads in apartment

A JAPANESE man arrested after the discovery of nine dismembered bodies in his apartment south of Tokyo has admitted to the murders, saying they began in late August when he moved into the apartment.

Takahiro Shiraishi, 27, has reportedly admitted to police that he had killed nine people, apparently eight women and one man, since August 22, after making contact on Twitter and luring them to his home in Zama, Kanagawa prefecture, with offers to help them die.

The arrested man admitted the theft of money was one of the reasons behind the murders – on one occasion taking ¥500,000 ($A5746) – and that he duped some of the women in an attempt to sexually abuse them.

The grisly case has stunned Japan, which enjoys an extremely low crime rate.

Authorities found the human remains in Mr Shiraishi’s home while investigating the disappearance of a 20year-old woman from Tokyo, whose body was then found among the remains.

The woman posted a message on the social networking site in late September seeking someone to help her take her own life, to which the suspect allegedly answered with a “let’s die together” message.

Images taken by security cameras at Tokyo’s Hachioji train station captured how they both took a train to the suspect’s home last week.

The police, who broke into the suspect’s apartment on Monday, found dismembered heads, limbs and other human remains, as well as some 240 bones, in crates and refrigerators.

Mr Shiraishi reportedly confessed to hacking the flesh off the bodies and throwing it out with the trash, then sprinkling cat litter over the remains in an effort to cover up evidence.

Police said Mr Shiraishi was being questioned by Tokyo prosecutors yesterday, a procedure before formal indictment.