Ex-U.S. soldier indicates he killed missing Okinawa woman

[yuiyoshida]

Protesters demand the withdrawal of U.S. bases from Okinawa Prefecture at a rally near the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Chatan in the prefecture on May 20. (Koichi Ueda)

NAHA—A former U.S. soldier indicated that he killed a Japanese woman whose body was found in Okinawa Prefecture, police sources said, in a case that has fueled demands that the U.S. military leave the southern prefecture.

A steady stream of demonstrations were held May 20 around the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Chatan, where the suspect, Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, was doing computer and electric wiring work as a U.S. civilian.

“We will never forgive you,” the protesters shouted at the base. “U.S. bases should get out.”

Shinzato, 32, was arrested May 19 on suspicion of abandoning the body of Rina Shimabukuro, a 20-year-old company employee from Uruma, Okinawa Prefecture, who had been missing since late April.

Her body was found in a wooded area in Onna in the prefecture based on Shinzato’s statements, the sources said.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201605200015.html