Still Missing France - Narumi Kurosaki, 21, Besancon, 4 Dec 2016 *arrest in 2020* *Guilty, Appeal 2023*

[ZaZara]

Crónica de una desaparición: las pistas que llevarán a Nicolás Zepeda a la justicia francesa | Nacional | BioBioChile

Chronicle of a disappearance: the clues that will lead Nicolas Zepeda to the French justice [part 1]

Testimonies from neighbours who woke up in the middle of the night, shopping in a supermarket and a strange conversation with his cousin in Barcelona are part of the accumulation of evidence against Nicolás Zepeda for the disappearance (and possible death) of his ex-girlfriend, Japanese student Narumi Kurosaki. The Chilean entered the radar of the French police almost by chance and ended up becoming the main suspect in a crime that is being watched closely by three countries. The story is published by BioBioChile.

On December 14, 2016, a police alert was issued in Besançon, a small town in eastern France. Arthur del Piccolo arrived worried to inform them that he had lost track of his girlfriend, Narumi Kurosaki.

The last time they talked was on the 4th of that month, after her dance rehearsal, but he did not know more and had no clue what had happened to her. She had not attended her classes at the city's applied linguistics center, nor had she met with her many friends, whom she saw regularly.

Something was wrong. And Narumi's entourage knew that. So the police immediately began to search for the whereabouts of the young woman, who had arrived in France in August of that same year to study.

With more doubts than certainties, the investigators raised their first hypothesis: a kidnapping. The suspect? Del Piccolo himself, according to Christophe Touris, head of the Criminal Section of the Besançon police, who later told a Chilean Supreme Court minister.

With 26 years of service, he was in charge of leading the investigations that should find Narumi.

The first thing was to go to the room where the student lived, located in a dormitory attached to the University of Besanҫon. There they found nothing out of the ordinary, except for some small details that caught the attention of the detectives: a large suitcase was missing and a blanket from the bed.

On the contrary, her computer, her bank cards and cash (about 500,000 Chilean pesos) were still there, intact. Her only coat was also there -according to witnesses-, which was strange considering that the temperatures were dropping and it would soon start snowing. That happened just a few days after her disappearance, so no one in their right mind would think of going out in the street without a jacket.

Moreover, those who knew Narumi closely were well aware that she always had her room unkempt, in contrast to the scene the police found, which was all neat and tidy.

These small (and yet important) clues led Christophe Touris to widen the search. They began by questioning the young woman's neighbours and close associates. The initial idea of a kidnapping quickly changed.

On Monday, December 5, at 3:21 a.m., several of the residents of the dormitories where Narumi lived began to text each other. The reason? Several of those who lived there had heard the screams of a woman. Although no one knew where they came from or who they were, one thing was clear: "they were terrifying," according to more than a dozen people who were there at that time.

All of them agreed that they had heard screams of horror, anguish, suffering, followed by a thud, as if a person had hit a wall, and after that, a deadly silence.

Some said during interrogations that it "sounded like a horror movie", while others claimed that it "gave the impression that someone was murdered".

The precise time is known precisely because many of the students in the university residence hall began to broadcast messages related to that episode. All of them sent their communications minutes after 3:21 a.m. that morning.

With this, the thesis of the homicide began to take shape, while the interest of the police in Del Piccolo - who had been closely watched, including with wiretaps - was declining.

Not only because they had not found anything that could implicate him in what happened to Narumi, whatever happened to her, but also because an old love of the Japanese woman appeared on the scene: the Chilean Nicolás Zepeda, who appeared on the police radar almost by chance.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Chronicle of a disappearance: the clues that will lead Nicolas Zepeda to the French justice [part 2]


According to Christophe Touris before the Chilean Supreme Court, his team's investigations did not stop at taking statements from witnesses, but also managed to determine that Narumi had left Besançon on the same Sunday, December 4, when her trail was lost. They did so with information obtained from her phone, which made it possible to establish that she had spent several hours in a town near her home. She had gone to eat at a restaurant, but since she was not driving they realized that she had not been alone.

In an attempt to obtain new leads, the police searched for reports of cars that had been speeding through the area. They got two results, two cars that had gone over the limit. One of them was a vehicle rented from Chile by Nicolás Zepeda, a former partner of Narumi.

The two met in 2014, while he was studying at Tsukuba University in Japan. The relationship evolved and they became engaged in early 2015. In May of that year, Narumi even visited Chile and met Zepeda's family, to whom she was introduced as his official and formal partner.
She, however, had to return to Japan and in August 2016, the young woman traveled to France, to continue her studies in Besançon. It was then that the relationship fizzled out and Kurosaki decided to put an end to the courtship she was keeping at that point with the Chilean.

The break-up was painful, especially for him, according to the investigation carried out by the French authorities, specifying that in September of that same year, the [ missing] student began a love affair with a French citizen: the same Arthur del Piccolo.

It is known that Zepeda did not take the break-up and the beginning of Narumi's new love well because of the numerous text messages sent on social networks and in different media that show the possessive and jealous nature he had, according to the accusation currently against him.

Be that as it may, all these antecedents ended up getting the full attention of the police and they set their eyes on the Chilean.

As the investigators were able to establish, Zepeda arrived in France a few days before Narumi's disappearance. The first place he visited was Dijon, a city relatively close to Besançon, where on Dec. 1, according to French police, the Chilean entered a Carrefour supermarket to buy a 5-liter canister of flammable oil stove products, matches and chlorine, as well as clothing.

That same day, and throughout the day, he drove through Rold Dejan, a nearby forest area characterized by its woods, rivers and for being distinctly isolated and not a tourist destination.

Although it is not clear what he did there, it was known -according to the Gallic investigation- that from then until December 4, 2016, Zepeda traveled in the vehicle every day to Besanҫon, where he dedicated himself to spying on Narumi, following her and hiding in the residence where the Japanese woman lived. All of this, of course, without the young woman knowing it.

The latter is known because the movements of the vehicle Zepeda had rented were recorded by the GPS of the machine, which located it first in the vicinity of Kurosaki's residence and then in the vicinity of the linguistics center where the student was attending.

It is also known from the registration of the defendant's Banco de Chile visa card and from the testimonies of two other residents of the university dormitories, who stated that they had met Nicolás inside the building.

The first corresponds to Rachel Roberts, a British student who said she saw him on two occasions: at around 6pm on 2 December in the corridors of the building and two hours later in the kitchen. The witness said he tried to hide, but was unable to do so and that they even spoke in English.

The second woman who saw him was another student from the French house of studies, Nadia Wakett, who said that she entered the kitchen and found Zepeda crouching against a kitchen cabinet, which she found extremely strange.

BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Chronicle of a disappearance: the clues that will lead Nicolas Zepeda to the French justice [ final part ]

As it happens, December 4th arrived. Narumi Kurosaki went to a dance class like every Sunday, left the class at 4pm and was seen by two people, her boyfriend Arthur Del Piccolo and a friend.

Later she met Zepeda and they ended up having dinner at La Table de Mustaff, the restaurant located in a nearby town called Orlands. There they eat, then he pays with his card and at about 11:00 at night they arrive in the city of Besanҫon, but not without triggering a photo radar on the road, a device that issued a traffic ticket for speeding to the Renault Megane that the Chilean was driving, a trail that - as noted - was key to the police finding out about the encounter of the two.

What happens next, however, is not known for sure as Zepeda's and the police's versions of the events contrast radically.

The latter claim - based on the cries of "terror" that woke up the residents - that Nicolás suffocated Narumi to death, and then took her out of the room to his vehicle with the help of the suitcase and blanket he took from the room.

His aim, they say, was to make her disappear in the same wooded area, not a tourist one, that he had visited the day he arrived in Dijon. In fact, according to the investigation, after leaving the residence, he remained there between 05:55 and 07:44 in the morning, and then returned the car in Dijon.

Subsequently, the accusation adds, comes a series of activities that would deal with the cover-up of what happened. This point in the story includes false messages to family and friends, while posing as Narumi Kurosaki, and the purchase of a train ticket to imply that she had traveled to another location.

However, those close to the young woman point out that the messages she supposedly sent were at least strange, if not outright false. Also, coincidentally, Zepeda would have sought the help of Japanese friends in translating them earlier, who realized that they were being used as an alibi.

The Chilean's version is simpler and points out that the screams that caused concern in the residence were actually moans of pleasure from the young student, as they had had sex after dinner.

The latter was indicated by the accused in a statement he voluntarily gave in writing to the PDI, in which he states that he travelled first to Switzerland to seek academic alternatives for a possible postgraduate degree, that he went to France for tourism and that he had then taken the opportunity to meet his ex, Narumi, for a meal. They went to her room, took a shower, had sex and finally, on December 5, he left and never heard from her again.

Zepeda's last recorded move on French soil was that on December 7 he left the country over land to Switzerland, and from there he took a plane directly to the city of Barcelona in Spain. There lives his cousin Juan Ramirez Zepeda, who is a doctor.

According to the testimony of the latter, and for a reason that cannot be explained, Nicolás was extremely interested and they had a very long conversation about how a person is asphyxiated, a situation that the cousin found very curious.

In addition, he adds in a new statement, that the accused had told him a succession of events different from those that actually occurred. He told him, for example, that he had not seen Narumi for months. Nor did he tell him that he had come from France, but from Switzerland, and that he had been there to replace his teacher at a seminar where he had originally gone as an assistant. None of this could be corroborated.

And in a new testimony, perhaps the most intriguing, the suspect's cousin claimed that the suspect told him that "it is not good for him to go around telling things that have happened in his house" and that "things in the family should stay in the family".

Annoyed by the situation and possibly feeling threatened by his cousin, whom he had taken in, Juan Ramírez turned to the Spanish police and added this new statement, which was transmitted by them to their French colleagues.

The following episodes are recent history: the French authorities requested Zepeda's extradition, which was finally granted - after a long legal process - this week.

Despite the decision of Chile's highest court, it is still not clear what happened to Narumi's body, if she was indeed murdered.

"The prosecutor's office asked Besanҫon police chief Christophe Touris in a video conference during the extradition request hearing at the Supreme Court, "Why wasn't the body found?"

- "Between the end of November and December 6, it rained, and it rained a lot (...) If the body was thrown in the river it could have been washed away. Besides, we were informed late that this could have been one of the possibilities," he said.

-And how, based on your investigation, do you think Mr Zepeda could have removed Narumi's body from her room?

- "He could have done it during the morning, because in the morning there is no activity. In the early morning it's cold, it's night (still dark), he could have parked the car very close to the residence, and the fact that he stayed in the residence and was there, he could also identify where the cameras were and go out the emergency door where there was no camera that could focus on him," he said.

With all these evidences against him, the Chilean will have to go to face the French justice. The French police are expected to arrive in Chile within the next few weeks and place the only suspect for the disappearance (and possible death) of Narumi Kurosaki before the European country's courts.

If convicted, he risks spending the rest of his life behind bars.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Besançon. Affaire Narumi Kurosaki : le suspect Nicolas Zepeda assigné à résidence au Chili

Case of Narumi Kurosaki: Suspect Nicolas Zepeda under house arrest in Chile


On Friday, Chile's Supreme Court ordered a tightening of the judicial supervision of Nicolas Zepeda, who is now under house arrest. A first since the beginning of this case. The suspect in the assassination of Narumi Kurosaki, who has been missing from Besançon since 2016, will be extradited to France on 23 July.

Coordination between two different judicial systems, the Covid epidemic, media pressure: nothing has made the extradition of Nicolas Zepeda Contreras any easier. His transfer under escort from Chile to France is now being planned as part of the Narumi Kurosaki case, named after the student who disappeared in Besançon in 2016.

Nicolas Zepeda is suspected by the French police of having murdered the Japanese student, before getting rid of the body, which has remained untraceable despite long searches. A crime he has been denying for three and a half years. Faced with the body of evidence accumulated against him, the Supreme Court of Chile has nevertheless accepted that he be handed over to France. A rather rare procedure, and complex to orchestrate.

Extradition was expected to take place on 9 July. The health constraints - coupled with a media frenzy behind the scenes that annoyed the French authorities - ultimately led to a reshuffle of the cards. The date of the operation has been pushed back to 23 July, Santiago Supreme Court judge Jorge Dahm announced on Friday 26 June during a video-conference hearing.

At the request of the Chilean public prosecutor's office, the restrictions imposed on Nicolas Zepeda have been tightened. Until now, apart from a formal ban on leaving Chilean territory, Zepeda has been able to move about freely but is now under house arrest in Vina del Mar, about 100 km from the capital. This is in order to guarantee his surrender to France "and to avoid a possible danger of flight". An unlikely scenario, but one that still haunts the minds of Narumi's relatives, as their Besançon lawyer Me Galley recently confided.

Once on French soil, Nicolas Zepeda will be presented to an examining magistrate in Besançon, who will notify him of his indictment for assassination. The Chilean suspect will also be questioned by the magistrate. It will then be known whether or not Narumi's ex-boyfriend will come out of the silence in which he has been hiding for many months.


BBM

Video of part of the session of the Chilean High Court:

 

[ZaZara]

Asesinato de Narumi Kurosaki: PDI acude a casa de Nicolás Zepeda para comenzar su extradición a Francia

Nicolas Zepeda (c) is leaving in a vehicle with officials of the Investigative Police to comply with his extradition to France.


IDP troops arrived at Nicolas Zepeda's home on Wednesday night for his extradition to France, where he will face justice for the murder of Narumi Kurosaki.

The two young people had been a couple months before the disappearance of Kurosaki, who was last seen alive in 2016 in the French city of Besançon.

Zepeda is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Kurosaki, a 21-year-old Japanese student. French investigators suspect the Chilean of suffocating and killing the young woman and accuse him of "premeditated voluntary manslaughter".

According to information from Radio Bío Bío, the detectives are to hand him over to Interpol personnel, who will fly him to the European country.

Nicolás Zepeda was placed under total house arrest at his residence in the city of Viña del Mar, which was lifted today in order to carry out the transfer.

BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Chilean suspect in Japanese student’s murder extradited to France

After more than three years evading French prosecutors, Chilean national Nicolas Zepeda was set to be extradited to
France on Thursday, where is he accused of murdering his Japanese ex-girlfriend in 2016.

Police escorted the 29-year-old from the seaside resort of Vina del Mar, 120 kilometres west of Santiago, where he had been under house arrest, to the Santiago international airport some 12 hours ahead of schedule.

After a two-hour trip Zepeda entered the airport terminal under police escort, where he is to be formally handed over to French police.

Zepeda was set to board an Air France flight on Thursday bound for Paris.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

{{rubedo.current.page.title}}

The plane carrying the Chilean Nicolas Zepeda, suspected of having murdered his former girlfriend Japanese Narumi Kurosaki in Besançon, eastern France, in 2016, took off Thursday for Paris, where it is due to arrive Friday morning, Chilean police told AFP.

"Mr. Zepeda has just been handed over to French police at Santiago airport. He will then be presented in Besançon tomorrow (Friday)," the public prosecutor in Besançon, Etienne Manteaux, announced a few hours earlier.
This extradition procedure is a revival of the three-and-a-half-year-old judicial drama that has been keeping the Japanese media in suspense.

The Chilean police picked Zepeda up from his home in a luxury apartment block in the seaside resort of Viña del Mar, some 120 km from the capital, on Wednesday evening. He was then taken to Santiago de Chile airport in a grey police van.
The sole suspect in the murder of Narumi Kurosaki, who was under house arrest to "avoid a possible flight risk", is due to arrive in Paris Charles-de-Gaulle on Friday morning at 10:55 a.m. French time (08:55 GMT).

Nicolas Zepeda will be notified of the enforcement of his international arrest warrant upon his arrival at Roissy airport in Paris, according to M. Manteaux.
Judicial police investigators will then take him to Besançon, where he will be presented to the investigating judge in charge of the case.
"This is the beginning of a second phase of the investigation, with perhaps some twists and turns in this phase," Manteaux said. "He will be presented tomorrow to the investigating judge with a view to his possible indictment of the assassination. If he is indicted, the public prosecutor's office will ask for an adversarial debate to be held for possible detention.

"The speed with which the Chilean justice system, also in the context of Covid, has responded to our extradition request is exceptional," the Besançon prosecutor said.

Narumi Kurosaki, a 21-year-old student, lived on the university campus of Besançon where she was last seen on 4 December 2016. Nicolas Zepeda, son of a wealthy Chilean family, was her former boyfriend.
They had met in Japan in 2014 where he had gone to study. He fell madly in love with her and introduced her to his family.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

En direct. Disparition de Narumi Kurosaki : l'avion de Nicolas Zepeda s'est posé à Paris

Live blog Est Republicain:

11:15 a.m.- The plane has landed, Nicolas Zepeda is on French soil.

The Air France AF401 aircraft, arriving directly from Santiago, landed a few moments ago on the tarmac at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, with Nicolas Zepeda on board. The suspect will be taken to the border police office (PAF). It is at this point that he will be notified of his international arrest warrant, issued in December 2016. The South American will then be handed over to another security escort, specially from Besançon. Once these formalities have been completed, Zepeda will board an unmarked car, heading for the Besançon courthouse. His arrival in Franche-Comté is scheduled for mid-afternoon. Numerous Japanese and French journalists have taken up positions at the airport to try to spot the suspect, but the media coverage is expected to be even more extensive in Besançon.


BBM


Media frenzy aside, kudos to public prosecutor Etienne Manteaux and his team for pulling this off despite a no-body case, no extradition treaty between the two countries and the Corona epidemic.

The good people of Besançon collected money for Narumi's family and they will be able to attend the trial.

 

[ZaZara]

En direct. Disparition de Narumi Kurosaki : son ex-petit ami Nicolas Zepeda est en route pour Besançon

Live blog Est Républicain:


The suspect's lawyer is preparing

Nicolas Zepeda's new lawyer, Me Jacqueline Laffont, arrived at the Besançon court this morning accompanied by her entire team. She and her associates are actively preparing the presentation to the examining magistrate, and especially the debates that will follow about the possible incarceration of her client. Highly reputed, particularly for her procedural skills, Me Laffont is an expert in major political and media cases. Sarkozy, Benalla, Hulot, Pasqua and Gbagbo have in the past solicited her services.


BBM


From the link in the live blog:

To defend his interests, the Chilean has chosen Me Jacqueline Laffont. Dreaded and feared, the lawyer has pleaded in political-financial cases with a high media profile. Her great talent? Tracking down procedural flaws...

The choice of Jacqueline Laffont shows an obvious initial strategy... Even before reaching the bottom of the case, unfavourable to Nicolas Zepeda despite the absence of the victim's body, a line of defence emerges: to explore and exploit the slightest flaws in the procedure. This one is complex. The investigation under rogatory commission was fuelled by multiple investigations carried out in Japan and especially in Chile, relying on international judicial collaboration that was sometimes unusual in its forms.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

En direct. Disparition de Narumi Kurosaki : Nicolas Zepeda est arrivé au palais de justice de Besançon

Est Républicain live blog:

4:40 p.m.- Nicolas Zepeda arrived at the Besançon courthouse under heavy guard

The arrival in Besançon of the number 1 suspect in the Narumi case did not go unnoticed. Zepeda was brought in by a convoy of three cars full of policemen. Armed BRI officials, with weapons in hand, cleared the way for the last vehicle, amidst an impressive mix of journalists and a few civilians. The car with tinted windows rushed into the courthouse garage, still being filmed by a multitude of cameras. "What have you done with that poor girl, you scum?" a particularly upset lady yelled repeatedly.

BBM


Video:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=218199262764612

 

[ZaZara]

En direct. Disparition de Narumi Kurosaki : Nicolas Zepeda mis en examen

L'Est Républicain, live blog

19.45 h Nicolas Zepeda officially indicted for assassination

It is now official: Nicolas Zepeda, 29, is under investigation for the assassination of Narumi Kurosaki. This is a decisive step for the rest of the case, which should help solve the mystery of the student's disappearance.

After a period of discussion with his team of lawyers, Zepeda will now face the judge of freedoms and detention (JLD). The hearing should begin soon. The press should be able to attend.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

En direct. Disparition de Narumi Kurosaki : Nicolas Zepeda mis en examen

L'Est Républicain, live blog

8:25 p.m. - Detention or not: a strategic battle

The hearing will begin in a moment. Presumed innocent, will Nicolas Zepeda have to go to prison or not? This is the deep conviction of the public prosecutor, who in a few moments will launch into requisitions in this sense, before the judge in charge of deciding the matter. On the defense side, Me Laffont will on the other hand praise the qualities of her Chilean protégé, who wisely answered all his summons to appear before the Supreme Court of Santiago. A remand in custody of the young man, who refuses to talk, can make a big difference. Zepeda has never known prison, which is psychologically trying, especially for a man who has never experienced isolation. The daily hardship of incarceration could lead him to reconsider his position and to detail his version of the facts. In view of the future trial, the first impression made on the popular jurors is also quite different, between an accused arriving free and with his head held high, or the opposite, handcuffed and accompanied by a police escort.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Besançon. Disparition de Narumi Kurosaki : Zepeda placé en détention provisoire à Besançon

L'Est Républicain, live blog


8:45 p.m.- Prosecutor requests the imprisonment of the defendant

Dressed in a black polo shirt and grey trousers, Nicolas Zepeda faces the judge of liberties and detention.

He turns to the prosecutor, Etienne Manteaux, when the latter takes the floor to demand his incarceration. The magistrate considers that the defence's request for accommodation in Paris, in an Airbnb apartment, under an electronic bracelet, presents "no guarantee."

The prosecutor castigated Zepeda's alleged cooperation in his extradition, depicting "the face of a calculating, dangerous man." Etienne Manteaux insists: "It would be catastrophic if Mr. Zepeda fled. We can't take that risk. Moreover, only one person in the room can know where Narumi Kurosaki's body is. A release could allow him to erase the last traces that might burden him."

Manteaux also pointed out the "risk of an aggressive gesture" aimed at the Chilean, by "an apprentice vigilante".

21 h. - The defence lawyer urges not to "forget the law"

Now it's Me Laffont's turn to speak. Nicolas Zepeda's lawyer promises that her client will speak during the investigation, but later. "Emotion should not make us forget the law," she hammered, inviting the judge to consider only the legal elements of a placement in pre-trial detention.

21 h 30. - I have never committed violence," Zepeda says on the stand.

At the end of his lawyer's plea, Nicolas Zepeda takes the stand and, with the help of notes, declares the following: "I promise to present myself (before justice, editor's note). Since December 2016, I have not exerted the slightest pressure on anyone, and I promise that it will continue. I have never committed any violence or pressure on anyone. I am willing to submit to any control of my whereabouts."

The judge withdrew for deliberation. The immediate fate of Nicolas Zepeda is dependent on her decision.

11:20 p.m. - Nicolas Zepeda remanded in custody

The decision has just been made public: Narumi's ex-boyfriend will sleep in prison for the first time in his life, this Friday night. The judge has given herself 45 minutes of reflection before pronouncing the pre-trial detention. Nicolas Zepeda will have to meditate on his new status as an indicted person in the prison of Besançon, in an isolation cell that has been prepared for him for several days. The judge based her decision on three points: to guarantee his continued availability to the justice system, to put an end to a persistent disturbance of public order and to guarantee the defendant's own physical integrity.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Besançon. Disparition de Narumi Kurosaki : Zepeda placé en détention provisoire à Besançon

L'Est Républicain, live blog

11:45 p.m. Narumi's relatives "beg" Nicolas Zepeda to reveal the location of her remains

Surrounded by journalists, Ms. Galley, lawyer for the Kurosaki family, made a brief statement: "The relatives of Narumi wanted to remind everyone that yesterday, Thursday, July 23, 2020, the day of the extradition of Nicolas Zepeda, Narumi should have celebrated her 25th birthday. This birthday was a day of mourning. They are still hoping for answers.

They are devastated today because they were still hoping that revelations would be made. They beg Nicolas Zepeda to reveal Narumi's whereabouts to them, as her place is near her parents. They can no longer remain in this torture, that has been ongoing for four years."


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

La sombra larga de Narumi: los argumentos de Francia para extraditar a Nicolás Zepeda - La Tercera

The report is dated March 5, when France was still trying to get Nicolás Zepeda extradited:

The investigative file shared by the French authorities with the Prosecutor's Office contains strong evidence to presume his involvement, despite the fact that the victim - or her remains - have never been found.

The long shadow of Narumi, part 1

According to the information gathered by the French authorities, Nicolas Zepeda arrived in Dijon on Wednesday 30 November 2016 after passing through the airports of Madrid and Geneva. At the station he picked up the Renault Megane he had booked two weeks earlier from Santiago, in exchange for 237 euros charged to his Banco de Chile credit card. That same day he charged a prepaid phone card at a shopping mall in the city, before driving an hour east to Besançon, where the Centre for Applied Linguistics of the University of Franche-Comté is located. That's where Narumi Kurosaki, the woman who had been his girlfriend until October 8 of that year, was studying.

Zepeda spent that night in Besançon and returned to Dijon around noon on Thursday, December 1. Once there, he stopped at the Carrefour supermarket in the Toison d'Or mall. According to employees, he made a 9.80 euro purchase that included a five-litre can of Winflamm stove fuel, a chlorine detergent and a box of matches.

That afternoon, according to the GPS records of his car, Zepeda drove along secondary roads in the neighbouring department of Jura, an area of large forests and waterways.

On the following days, Dec. 2-3, he took a room at the hotel-restaurant "La Table de Gustave" in Ornans, a town 25 km south of Besançon. It was in the latter place that he spent the most time, as witnesses say. Two foreign students - Britain's Rachel Roberts and Algeria's Nadia Ouaked - claim to have seen him inside Narumi's university residence during those days. They both remember finding him hiding in the kitchen.

The card registry also places Zepeda in Besançon. On Saturday afternoon, the 3rd, he entered the H&M store in the city and bought a blue jacket and a white shirt for 80 euros. This new outfit was worn for the first time the next day, when Narumi Kurosaki agreed to meet him for lunch after her dance classes. The security cameras of "La Table de Gustave" captured the ex couple arriving around 7 pm. Zepeda paid for dinner with the same card. Then, around 10 pm, they left together for Besançon in the Renault, which was registered speeding -82 km/h in a 70 km/h- zone just five kilometres before entering the city.

The waiters at the restaurant would be the last to see Narumi Kurosaki. In the 39 months since her disappearance, virtually no clues have been found to her whereabouts, and the few that were known early were questioned by investigators.

Zepeda's car was parked near the university residence that night, throughout Monday, Dec. 5, and well into the early morning hours of Tuesday, Dec. 6, when it was driven back to the woods it had driven through a few days earlier.

Narumi Kurosaki's apartment was in apparent order on December 15, when the French police entered to inspect it. This seemed strange to her closest friends, as it was usually chaotic. Almost all of her personal items were still there, including her coat - it was winter - and a wallet with 565 euros. As they reviewed the inventory of her possessions, however, the investigators noticed that a blanket and a suitcase were missing.

The next day, doubting that it was a voluntary disappearance, the local prosecutor's office decided to open an investigation for possible abduction, kidnapping and murder.

After more exhaustive searches of her room, what was found was as striking as what was missing. Although there were no traces of blood, fingerprints were discovered on a cup, which would later match Zepeda's. From this sample, a genetic analysis was carried out which identified male DNA which was also present on a water bottle, a T-shirt, the wall, the bathroom floor and the edge of the sink.

The testimonies of Narumi's neighbours provided further evidence. Fifteen students claim to have heard screams of pain and deafening noises in the residence at around 3.30 a.m. on 5 December. Only one of them, Adrien Laurent, went out into the corridor on the first floor to find out what was going on, but he could not locate where the noise was coming from and returned to his room as soon as silence returned. No one else thought to call the police.

"You'd think they were killing someone," English student Rachel Hope wrote at 3:21 in a group chat.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

The long shadow of Narumi, part 2

The expertise on Narumi's laptop also inevitably directed the investigation towards Zepeda. A total of 981 messages exchanged between 28 August and 8 October, when the breakthrough occurred, were analysed. This virtual correspondence opened a window for the investigators to examine the harsh last months of the relationship.

Many messages showed that Zepeda had a character that the French authorities judged to be "jealous and possessive," of which Narumi complained early on. "You make my studies abroad bitter," wrote the Japanese woman, who had just arrived in Besançon on a scholarship. In one of those conversations, she even threatened to go to the police.

The fights continued, exacerbated by the distance. Narumi was in France and Zepeda was in Japan, where he had arrived in April 2016, with the idea of getting a job and living near his girlfriend. The two had met almost two years earlier, in October 2014, while the University of Chile's business and administration student was on an exchange at Tsukuba University. The love affair started shortly thereafter, in February 2015.


By September 2016, those good times were well behind them. Zepeda insisted that his girlfriend remove from Facebook and Line - a social network similar to Whatsapp - two new friends she had made in France. "Show me you're serious, I want to see your commitment," he said. "You want me to contact them, to send them a message on Facebook saying that you are my partner so that they stop following you."

In the face of his girlfriend's refusals, he insisted: "I'm going to lose my patience, Narumi (...) you've treated me like a garbage can".

Two days after that fight, on September 7, Zepeda uploaded a video to Dailymotion dedicated to his partner. Looking directly into the camera and speaking in English, he imposed conditions on her so that they could stay together. "Narumi did some bad things that made it difficult for her to follow certain conditions to keep this relationship (...) If she follows the conditions until that date, I will leave them without effect, because I don't want to live like that and I don't want her to live like that either. At the same time, she must rebuild trust and pay a little of the cost of what she did and assume if she is going to make those mistakes with a person who loves her. Yes. Two weeks."

The situation worsened until October 8, when Narumi confronted Zepeda with his lack of support in an alleged pregnancy, information that could never be confirmed or ruled out by investigators. "I wanted us to verify that before you went to France," he replied. "You destroyed us, for selfish reasons (...) Was it responsible to go out with those guys, to have drinks with some guys?"

Despite his desperate attempts to save the situation, Zepeda was only insulted in that last dialogue. "Go yourself", is the Spanish translation given by the Besançon Prosecutor's Office. By then, Narumi was beginning a new relationship with Arthur del Piccolo, one of the students her ex-boyfriend had asked to be blocked on social networks.

Finally, Zepeda left Japan on October 9, the day after the final breakup. According to French authorities, he began attending a behavioral therapy center as soon as he returned to Santiago.

By the night of December 5, Arthur del Piccolo was worried about Narumi Kurosaki. He had noticed that she had not been attending classes and had not heard from her for many hours. When he arrived at the door of her apartment and started knocking, he received a message on his cell phone: Narumi was telling him that he was pushing her too hard, that she had spent the day with another man and that she was out of town.

Bewildered and upset, Del Piccolo left the residence. In the days that followed, he insisted on communicating, but only received similar replies, in which she told him that she was in Lyon making consular arrangements and that she never wanted to see him again. The last message dates from 8 December.

A couple of days later, between 11 and 12 December, Narumi's family also began to receive messages that seemed strange to them, not only because of the content, but also because of unusual linguistic twists for someone who had learned Japanese from birth. In them, Narumi told her mother and sisters that she was going to Luxembourg for a week. "I have a new boyfriend" and "I'm going alone" were some of her last phrases in the chat.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

The long shadow of Narumi, part 3

It was only in March 2017 that the prosecution was able to affirm their theory about Narumi's communications after December 4. With the assistance of the Japanese police, two of Zepeda's friends, Rina Sakamaki and Megumi Sugihara, were questioned. In the days following Narumi's disappearance, both had been in contact with the Chilean, who had asked them to help translate phrases such as "I have a new boyfriend" or "I'm going alone" into colloquial Japanese.

"I wondered at that moment why Nicolas wanted to learn a phrase whose style belongs to the feminine language," said Sakamaki, who found out, a few weeks later and through friends, that the Kurosaki family had received words very similar to those she had translated. "When I saw this picture I wondered if my translation had not been used by Nicolas to conceal Narumi's disappearance. That made me angry."

The two students had also received subsequent requests from Zepeda to delete their conversation logs on Facebook Messenger and Line on the same day. "At the time I was not aware of Narumi's disappearance, so I deleted the conversations," Sakamaki added.

Sugihara, however, did ask Zepeda-san why he wanted to delete her conversations. "I don't want to be the one suspected of her disappearance just because I was her boyfriend... Don't worry, she's probably off having fun with other men," was his response.

All of Narumi's communications with family and friends ceased on December 13. The French authorities noted that this date coincided with Zepeda's arrival in Chile.

Zepeda returned the Renault Megane in Dijon around noon on Wednesday, December 7, 2016. The vehicle had traveled 776 kilometers in eight days of rental and - in the words of the agency's employees - looked "very dirty," with dirt on the driver's seat and in the suitcase. That same afternoon, he bought a bus ticket to Geneva, where he then took a plane to Barcelona. There his cousin, medical student Juan Felipe Ramirez, who lived there with his wife, was waiting for him.

According to the statement that Ramírez would later give to the French justice system, in January 2017, Zepeda explained that he had traveled to Europe to replace a professor from his university at a congress held in Geneva. When asked about Narumi, he replied that he had not seen her since September.

Ramírez also recalled a conversation on Saturday, Dec. 10, when during a meal, Zepeda suddenly became curious about death by asphyxiation. He asked why a person who has hanged himself dies, how long it takes to die and how to know if people are alive or dead after hanging.

His cousin was also struck by the fact that he talked about Narumi in both the present and the past. "Narumi liked the sea a lot," he remembers hearing him say. He also found it strange that Zepeda asked him not to discuss the details of his stay in Barcelona with anyone, arguing that he was having "problems with his father". Ramírez also claims that a month later, shortly after he delivered his version to the French authorities, Zepeda contacted him to tell him that "the family should help each other in those complicated moments.

Finally, on Monday, December 12, Zepeda returned to Geneva to connect with a flight to Madrid, from where he finally traveled back to Santiago. His re-entry into the country is dated December 13.

Ten days later, on December 23, the French justice system issued the arrest warrant for Zepeda. He decided to present a letter with a voluntary statement to the PDI, which was delivered on December 29 and is his only version of what happened until today. In that document, Zepeda said that he had travelled to Europe looking for academic possibilities and had only travelled to Besançon after receiving a message from Narumi in which she regretted the relationship they had had.

"Out of genuine concern, I thought of the possibility of meeting Narumi to catch up on our lives in a friendly way. Our end of the relationship was not abrupt, but consensual, so it was not unusual to see it that way," he wrote.

Zepeda said that after meeting on Sunday, Dec. 4, for dinner in Ornans, the two realized they were still in love and returned to Narumi's residence for "intimacy. According to her version, she was so "receptive and attuned" to the act that she made " moans", but then felt guilty for being unfaithful to her new partner, Arthur del Piccolo, and asked Zepeda to leave. The latter would have departed through the emergency exit. "I walked downtown hoping Narumi would contact me, but that never happened again."


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

The long shadow of Narumi, final part


When the Besançon regional prosecutor, Etienne Manteaux, requested the extradition of Nicolas Zepeda in September 2019, he described the crime as premeditated voluntary manslaughter. His theory, supported by the background of the investigative file, is that Zepeda could not tolerate the rejection of his ex-girlfriend, hid the true intentions of his visit to Europe and, either before or during the trip, decided to murder her.

According to the extradition request, the murder allegedly took place in the early hours of December 5, when other students in the residence heard screams that were unmistakably painful. The absence of blood in Narumi's bedroom suggested to investigators that the method used was asphyxiation and that the body could have been moved to the car in a suitcase in the early morning of 6 December. At that time, the car rented by Zepeda was set in motion and was located by GPS signals in the forest sector of Jura department.

The previous journey made by the Chilean in that forested area of the region ("he had no reason to travel to those isolated areas") and the purchase of inflammable liquids ("a tourist passing through France does not need those objects") also reinforce the hypothesis.

Manteaux also believes that Zepeda impersonated Narumi, sending messages to her family and friends that would have bought him time. According to the records, the IP addresses that yielded connections to Narumi's social networks vary too much after her disappearance, as if there was an objective to mislead. Furthermore, the Japanese woman's credit card bought a ticket from Besançon to Lyon, but from an IP in Dijon, just as Zepeda was in that city.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Doubs. Affaire Narumi à Besançon : Nicolas Zepeda, le détenu modèle

Narumi case in Besançon: Nicolas Zepeda, the model prisoner
Incarcerated since six weeks in the Besançon prison, the suspect of Narumi Kurosaki's assassination, Nicolas Zepeda, is not making any waves. His behaviour never ceases to astonish: placed in solitary confinement, the Chilean tries to learn French, remains "courteous" and takes his problems patiently with detachment, while waiting for the next interrogation.

Nicolas Zepeda is well, thank you on his behalf. In any case, this is the echo that crosses the thick walls of the Besançon prison, where the presumed assassin of Narumi Kurosaki has been provisionally imprisoned since last July 24th, on the evening of a media-hectic arrival in Franche-Comté.

The young Chilean "seems to be well adapted to his conditions of detention," said a guard of the Bisontin prison. "He doesn't play the diva. He is polite, courteous, respectful. We have nothing to complain about with regards to him," another employee adds. After 29 years of a golden life free of all material needs, traveling the world through his studies and travels, Nicolas Zepeda has nevertheless moved into another dimension. Confined to four walls.

The very first incarceration often provokes, in the first-time prisoner, what is called 'prison shock'. Psychologically, being locked up all day and night in less than 10 m² can be devastating.

As for the South American, he remains an appearance of marble. A "nice chap," it is said of him in prison, who "asked for books to learn French." He only fears unlikely paparazzi, who would be posted in front of the prison to steal an image of him...

A specific protocol is provided for detainees classified as "media". This is the case of Jonathann Daval in Dijon. This is also the case of Zepeda in Besançon, who, pending his probable future trial in 2021, has been placed in solitary confinement. Stuck in a cell 23 hours a day, the TV that runs on a loop can quickly become boring. "He can't see any other prisoner, he stays out of sight," confirms a guard.

Nicolas Zepeda has nevertheless made a request: that he be provided with an eye patch. "He is being watched very closely," the officer explains, "and we are asked to go and check on him very regularly, including at night. This can disturb his sleep." Like the other prisoners, Narumi's ex-boyfriend is allowed a short daily walk. "But in one of the separate courtyards. All he sees is concrete and scrap metal".

The suspect's personality leaves all observers perplexed. During his judicial marathon from Chile to Besançon, from his extradition to his provisional imprisonment, Nicolas Zepeda has always seemed serene, as master of his world. Although he claims to be innocent, the young man of 29 shows no mood swings. Casual and nonchalant. Sometimes smiling. Always confusing.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Enquête. Assassinat présumé de Narumi : le suspect Nicolas Zepeda interrogé ce mercredi à Besançon

Alleged assassination of Narumi: suspect Nicolas Zepeda interrogated on Wednesday in Besançon

Will he finally speak? According to our information, Nicolas Zepeda was taken from the Besançon prison on Wednesday 30th September. The suspect in the assassination of Narumi Kurosaki, whose body has remained untraceable since late 2016, was to be questioned by the investigating judge. The day before in prison, Zepeda received a visit from his father, who arrived straight from Chile.

D-Day for the Narumi case? Almost four years after the disappearance of the Japanese student, one can only hope for a possible new turning point this Wednesday.

Nicolas Zepeda was extracted in complete secrecy from the Besançon prison shortly before 10 am this morning, on his way to the courthouse. According to our information, the only suspect in Narumi Kurosaki's assassination is going to be questioned there by the investigating judge in charge of this sensitive case, Marjolaine Poinsard. The magistrate has a long list of very specific questions for the suspect. A more general, more direct question runs through everyone's mind: where is Narumi's body?

Nicolas Zepeda has recently spent two months in solitary confinement, without any contact with other prisoners. A prison shock apparently absorbed with mastery by the South American, described as "calm", "polite" and "a nice boy" in his cell.

Will this new difficult situation, at the very opposite of his golden Chilean life, nevertheless change his position? Because, faced with the evidence accumulated against him by Besançon's Judicial Police investigators, the young man has so far opted for a simple line: he denies any involvement in the brutal disappearance of his ex-girlfriend and, for the rest, remains silent. Even though he initially admitted having spent the night of 4-5 December 2016 with Narumi, making him the last person to have seen the student alive, the Chilean is not inclined to facilitate the work of the justice system.

That is his right. It is his strategy. It is also the option already chosen by the defence in April 2019, on the premises of the courthouse in Santiago, when the Chilean public prosecutor's office submitted to him in vain 95 questions prepared in advance by the French authorities. A tense interrogation, attended by the Besançon public prosecutor, the investigating judge and two police officers from the two regions. The quartet had travelled 12,000 km to experience this closed session from the inside and to probe their suspect in person for the first time.

A year and a half later, the situation has changed radically. Although presumed innocent, Nicolas Zepeda appears weakened by his recent extradition. When he was presented to the Besançon judge of liberties and detention on 24 July, his new French lawyer had promised that his client "would be called upon to express himself in the context of the investigation."

This Wednesday he has the opportunity to do so. The office of Ms. Laffont, chief defense attorney, had time to study the thick investigation file, in order to best prepare this very first interrogation on French soil ...

For the time being, Me Laffont has not expressed herself in any way in the media. And she has not requested any important procedural documents from the examining magistrate's office, nor has she appealed the decision to remand Nicolas Zepeda in custody.

According to our information, Nicolas Zepeda's father travelled to France for the occasion. As required by the health protocol linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, Humberto Zepeda was placed in quarantine in Paris as soon as he landed, and then travelled to Besançon once this period had expired, where he took a hotel room.

The head of the Zepeda clan was allowed to visit his child this Tuesday in the privacy of the prison halls of the Butte prison. Father and son inevitably talked together about the day's interrogation. The content of their discussion will obviously remain private. Will it have had an influence on Nicolas Zepeda's attitude towards the investigating judge on Wednesday? The answer is pending.



BBM