YOKOHAMA -- A 75-year-old man was found dead with his legs and hands bound with adhesive tape at his home here on Oct. 16, and police are investigating a possible link to a string of violent robberies and other crimes in the greater Tokyo area.

A local woman called police at around 9:30 a.m. on the day, saying that a window by the entrance of a house in Yokohama's Aoba Ward had been left open since the previous night. Officers arrived to find resident Hiroharu Goto collapsed inside the house, and he was confirmed dead at the scene.

An investigative source explained that Goto was found collapsed in the dressing room. His hands and legs had apparently been bound with adhesive tape, and he had bruises over a wide area of his body as well as bleeding wounds, suggesting he had been assaulted. The Kanagawa Prefectural Police are investigating the case as a murder, and are also carefully examining any connection to a string of incidents in the metropolitan area.

When Goto was found, the front door was unlocked and a window next to it was broken. The prefectural police believe that someone may have entered the house from the outside. He was living with his wife, but she was out of the house at the time.

The scene is in a residential area about 2 kilometers northwest of Ichigao Station on the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line. A nearby resident in her 70s told the Mainichi Shimbun, "Normally this is a very quiet area. It's scary that such a horrible thing has happened."

(Japanese original by Mayu Miyamoto and Chika Yokomi, Yokohama Bureau; video by Tatsuro Tamaki, Photo Group)