SHIZUOKA, Japan (Kyodo) -- A mother was sent to prosecutors Friday on a murder charge after her 5-year-old daughter's body was found in a freezer at their home in central Japan, police said.

Police suspect the mother, Yoko Kawaguchi, 37, strangled her daughter Shoko and stored her body in a freezer.

An autopsy revealed arm and hand impressions on the girl's neck, indicating that she had been strangled and died of suffocation, investigative sources said. The girl had no other major injuries.

When Kawaguchi ran her car off a road on Sept. 16, she told police officers that her daughter was missing, and the officers who visited her home found Shoko's body in the freezer, where it is believed to have been kept for several days, the police said.

At the time of the incident, the mother and daughter were living by themselves, the sources said.

Police arrested Kawaguchi on Oct. 22 on suspicion of abandoning a body and on Wednesday, served a fresh warrant for murder.