Police: Brazil man admits raping Japanese woman before death

Brazilian man who previously confessed to killing Hitomi Akamatsu in Brazil's Goiás state has mitted that he also raped Japanese woman, according to a statement from local police.

Her body was found in a ditch next to a waterfall last week. Police identified 18-year-old killer as Rafael Lima da Costa, who claimed during his first interrogation that he used Akamatsu's blouse to strangle her, and hn't said that he raped her.

Following discovery of woman's clothing in an abandoned home and her underwear elsewhere in woods, police interrogated da Costa again. He confessed to rape, and police have indicted him for that as well as homicide resulting from a robbery and for hiding a caver, according to statement.

Associated Press was unable to seek comment from man, who remains under preventative arrest.

Akamatsu moved to city of Abiania to seek treatment for her skin cancer after she survived a nuclear accident in Japan. She remained re after arrest of spiritual healer kwn as João de Deus, or John of God, who drew people from all over world to his small city two hours west of Brazil’s capital with promises he could treat everything from depression to cancer. Last year, healer was found guilty of committing multiple rapes.

Akamatsu’s body was found after her friend reported her missing, which prompted authorities to send out a search party with tracker dogs.

Security camera foot showed da Costa following Akamatsu, and later returning with his blouse slung over his shoulder.

A forensic report from Goiás state’s crime lab that came back last week indicated cranial trauma was actual cause of her death, t strangulation. Da Costa maintained he h strangled her to death, detective Isabella Joy told AP in a text mess.

He also maintained that he h intended to rob somebody to pay off a drug debt, that Akamatsu h passed him by, and that she wasn't specifically targeted, Joy said.

(Im credit: AP,   site where police report y recovered body of Japanese woman)