Murder case across three continents: Japan’s Narumi Kurosaki

Boxes of evidence are displayed in the courtroom on the first day of the trial of Nicolas Zepeda, a Chilean man accused of murdering his Japanese ex-girlfriend in France in 2016, at the courthouse of Besancon, on March 29, 2022. AFP

PARIS — Nicolas Zepeda, a Chilean man accused of murdering his Japanese ex-girlfriend in France in 2016, goes on trial Tuesday in the eastern city of Besancon.

Here is a timeline of the affair, which gripped Japan, and involved years of legal wrangling with Chile.

2014: Meet in Japan

Zepeda, a teaching assistant and son of a wealthy Chilean family, meets Japanese student Narumi Kurosaki in Japan in 2014.

A year later they begin a relationship during which Kurosaki travels to Chile to meet Zepeda’s family.

But it ends after she moves to France in August 2016 to study in Besancon.

2016: Kurosaki vanishes in France

Zepeda travels to Besancon to see Kurosaki, then 21, in December 2016.

She is last seen dining with him at a restaurant a short drive from Besancon on December 4.

In the early hours of the morning, fellow students in the dormitory heard cries and thuds coming from the area of her room but her disappearance is not reported for several days, by which time Zepeda has returned to Chile.

Zepeda, who had the previous September threatened Kurosaki in a video posted online, which he later removed, admits going to her room for what he described as consensual sex and says he left straight afterwards.

Kurosaki’s body has never been found, despite extensive searches, including in the nearby forests.

Matches, flammable liquid

Prosecutors say that in France, Kurosaki had entered a new relationship, a development which “clearly exasperated” Zepeda.

They believe Zepeda killed his ex in a jealous rage.

In the video he had given her an ultimatum of two weeks to bend to his, unspecified, conditions.

The investigation reveals that he stopped off at a supermarket on his way to Besancon to buy matches, flammable liquid and bleach.

Mysterious messages

When Zepeda returned his hire car three days after Kurosaki’s disappearance, it was “very dirty” with soil found on the driver’s side and in the trunk, a prosecutor said.

For several days after her disappearances, messages continued to be sent from Kurosaki’s phone to her friends and family, including messages in Japanese.

A Japanese friend of Zepeda tells police he had asked her to translate sentences into Japanese, which later appeared in one of the messages sent from the missing woman’s phone.

2017-2020: Extradition saga

France soon after the disappearance issues an international warrant for Zepeda’s arrest, but a Chilean judge throws out a request to arrest him in February 2017.

In April 2019 Zepeda, who had been under house arrest in the Chilean seaside resort of Vina del Mar, is questioned by a Chilean judge in the presence of French investigators.

He denies involvement in Kurosaki’s disappearance.

In July 2020, he is extradited to France for questioning over the case. Shortly afterwards he is charged with murder.

The handover is delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent border closures.

Kurosaki’s family says via their lawyer they hope he will tell the truth.

French trial ordered

In February 2021, a French judge orders Zepeda to stand trial for murder. He faces life in prison if convicted.

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