A man serving a life sentence for the murder of a 13-year-old junior high school girl in 1997 killed himself in his prison cell earlier this month, sources familiar with the case said Wednesday.

Masato Okazaki, 29, who had been serving his sentence in Oita Prison in Oita Prefecture, was found hanging in his cell on the evening of Sept. 4, the sources said.

He was rushed to a hospital in an unconscious state, and died early on Sept. 8.

He apparently used his own shirt, wrapped around his neck and tied to a window frame of his cell, to hang himself, the sources said. No will was left in the cell.

Okazaki was found guilty of killing Michiyo Urakubo, a second-year junior high school student, in May 1997 in Mie Prefecture. He strangled the girl after hitting her with his car in the village of Tsukigase, Nara Prefecture, and taking her to the mountains in Mie.

He was originally sentenced to 18 years in prison by the Nara District Court in October 1998, but prosecutors, who had sought a life prison term, appealed the ruling to the Osaka High Court.

In June last year, the high court overturned the lower court ruling and sentenced Okazaki to life, saying he did not show sufficient remorse for his crime.

Junichi Maeda, chief of general affairs at Oita Prison, said it was a grave mistake on the part of prison officials not to have prevented Okazaki from committing suicide.

Guards were patrolling the cells once every 15 minutes, according to prison authorities.