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Japan police want sailor’s fingerprints

YOKOHAMA, Japan — Japanese police have asked the Navy to provide fingerprints of its sailor in connection with their investigations into the case of a cabdriver found murdered in his taxi in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, sources familiar with the case said Monday.

The sailor’s credit card was found inside the taxi.

The sailor, a 22-year-old seaman on the cruiser Cowpens, which is based at Yokosuka, has reportedly denied involvement in the case.

He is in custody for desertion, according to the U.S. military in Japan.

Masaaki Takahashi, 61, was found dead with a kitchen knife in his neck. He was found in the driver’s seat of his cab on a road in Yokosuka near the U.S. naval base on Wednesday evening.

The police have found only the credit card and the kitchen knife in the taxi, although no fingerprints were collected from them, according to investigative sources.

The Kanagawa prefectural police plan to dust for fingerprints left in the taxi and check whether they are identical to those provided by the Navy in an effort to identify the last passenger to leave the taxi. That person is believed to have killed Takahashi.

The police asked for the Navy’s cooperation in their investigation on Sunday.

They plan to question the sailor on a voluntary basis in the near future.

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