Runaway girl slain, buried near riverbank

MAIZURU, Kyoto Prefecture--A 15-year-old girl who had run away from home was found slain Thursday and buried in a shallow grave near a riverbank in a wooded area here.

The body of Miho Kosugi was discovered around 8:45 a.m. on a slope near the Asekugawa river about 4.5 kilometers northeast of JR Higashi-Maizuru Station and about 2.5 km southeast of Hikiage Kinen Koen (repatriation memorial park), the sources said.

She appears to have been beaten in the face and strangled, the sources said.

Dirt covered the entire body, except for an ear and fingers, the sources said.

More than 20 police officers had been searching for Kosugi, who was enrolled at the Ukishima night-class branch of the prefectural Higashi-Maizuru Senior High School.

Kosugi had run away from home between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 2 a.m. Wednesday. Her mother, who lived alone with her daughter, reported the girl missing on Wednesday morning.

The girl's belongings, including her cellphone and vest, were found around 7 p.m. Wednesday in the river and on the bank opposite the spot where her body was later discovered.

The area is usually empty, according to local people.

Kosugi phoned one of her friends early Wednesday morning and said she was taking a walk alone, the sources said. The friend said she sensed nothing unusual.

However, the friend later received an e-mail from Kosugi's mother saying that she could not contact her daughter.

Kosugi graduated from the municipal Shiraito Junior High School this spring and entered the high school. But she had not attended classes since her enrollment in April.

The girl tended to skip her junior high school classes and did not even attend the graduation ceremony in March.

She had also run away from home several times, according to the sources.

Senior high school officials learned about Kosugi's disappearance when police visited the school past noon Wednesday. However, school staff could provide no useful information about the girl's whereabouts because they had not seen her at school.

In November 2001, the body of an 18-year-old female senior high school student who had been stabbed in the neck was discovered near the spot where Kosugi's body was found Thursday.

That case remains unresolved.(IHT/Asahi: May 9,2008)