Police say a man who held four elementary schoolgirls captive before committing suicide had been using high school girls to recruit younger girls for part-time jobs, investigative sources said Saturday.
Two years ago, Saitama Prefectural Police investigated the man, identified as Kotaro Yoshisato, on suspicion of illegally selling pornographic videos, the sources said. At that time, however, police were unable to establish a case due to a lack of evidence.
The police said Yoshisato, 29, had held the four girls captive in an apartment in Tokyo since Sunday. The girls, two 11-year-olds and two 12-year-olds are all sixth-grade students at an elementary school in the city of Inagi, Tokyo. They were rescued Thursday after one of them managed to free herself and seek help.