Missing Japanese student Narumi Kurosaki was probably suffocated by her Chilean ex-boyfriend, says French prosecutor

Narumi Kurosaki disappeared in the city of Besancon, where she had been studying French, on the night of December 4, 2016.

Local prosecutor Etienne Manteaux said that determining the exact cause of death was difficult because investigators had not found her body despite extensive searches involving divers and dogs.

But he confirmed that no blood had been found in her room in a university residence in Besancon where terrified cries and the sound of a physical struggle were heard by fellow students at around 3:30am.

“Was it by suffocation? Probably. That doesn’t leave blood,” Manteaux told reporters in Besancon.

He said Kurosaki’s ex-boyfriend Nicolas Zepeda, who posted videos online threatening her before her disappearance, was “more than ever considered the main suspect in this killing”.