The parents of a Vietnamese schoolgirl killed in Japan last month have returned to the country following news of the suspect’s arrest.

Japanese police arrested a 46-year-old man last Friday on suspicion of abandoning the body of nine-year-old Le Thi Nhat Linh in Abiko City.

According to state media, Yasumasa Shibuya headed a parents’ association at the elementary school in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, where Linh attended.

It’s believed the real estate salesman led a neighbourhood initiative to watch over children walking to and from school.

The Japan Times reported that surveillance camera footage showed a minicar owned by Shibuya driving to an embankment on the Tone River in Bando, Ibaraki Prefecture, on the afternoon of March 24, the same day Linh went missing. Her satchel bag was found in the area and the car is then seen heading to the drainage ditch area some 20 km away, where her body was found.

Chiba police say results revealed that the third-grader was choked to death, suggesting she was possibly strangled.

The victim’s family were living in Japan at the time of her murder and had returned to Vietnam with her body for the funeral.

– with other agencies