Dodgy deaths linked to Tottori woman at six

The number of men who have died under suspicious circumstances possibly linked to a Tottori Prefecture woman arrested last week over a fraud case has reached six, investigative sources said Saturday.

Investigators have found that a prefectural police officer found hanged in February 2007 was an acquaintance of a 35-year-old woman at the center of a series of recently reported deaths.

The other deaths, reported last week, were of a 42-year-old Yomiuri Shimbun reporter who was run over by a train in May 2004, and a 27-year-old employee who drowned in the Sea of Japan off Tottori in August 2007.

The reporter had become acquainted with the woman at a bar in Tottori she worked at. The other man had lived with her for an unspecified time.

Suspicion also surrounds the deaths of Hideki Maruyama, 57, who was found in a river in Tottori in October, Kazumi Taguchi, 58, who lived in the same apartment compound as the woman and died at home in October shortly after becoming ill, and Kazumi Yabe, 47, a truck driver who was also found in the sea off Tottori in April.

All the men had been acquainted with or had financial troubles with the woman. Police sources have said foul play is suspected in some of the deaths because sleep-inducing drugs and cold medicine ingredients were found in the bodies.