A New York native was taken into custody in Osaka, Japan after authorities discovered the severed head of a woman in one of his suitcases.
Yevgeniy Vasilievich Bayraktar, 26, was attempting to leave his vacation rental on Feb. 22 while still in possession of the dismembered head of woman he’d met through an online dating site.
His victim turned out to be Saki Kondo, 27, a Japanese citizen that had been reported missing on February 16, one day after her first date with Bayraktar.
Surveillance videos at a train station located in Osaka captured footage of Kondo walking with Bayraktar on the day that she was reported missing by concerned family members.
Authorities have yet to discover the body, and Bayraktar has continued to deny any wrongdoing. As more information starts to roll in, it’s painting a picture of a very disturbed young man who maintained a bizarrely close relationship with his mother.
Bayraktar, a former airman in the US Air Force, had been vacationing in Japan since January. According to the New Yorker , he had been trying to leave his vacation rental in Osaka for another apartment when police intercepted him.
He became a person of interest when it became apparent that he was the last one to see Kondo before her disappearance. Authorities recovered surveillance footage of the woman entering Bayraktar’s rental and never coming out. This footage would be the last glimpse of Kondo before the discovery of her severed head a week later.
That same surveillance camera also captured Bayraktar making several trips in and out of the apartment carrying bags containing unidentified materials. It’s speculated that these were the additional remains of Kondo.
After a failed career in the Air Force, Bayraktar returned to Long Island to live with his mother, Regina Mishura, and her third husband. He had limited contact with his biological father in Russia and had an unnaturally close bond with Mishura.
In an interview with Fox News , Benny Dacy, Bayraktar’s former stepfather, describes his efforts to get close to Bayraktar with little success. He goes on to say that his former stepson was extremely withdrawn and would only interact with his mother.
“He was a mama’s boy,” said Dacy, 69. “If we were having dinner and he didn’t like the food, his mother would get up in the middle of the meal to cook him something special, and this was at a time when we didn’t have a lot of money.”
Japanese authorities are continuing to investigate the murder of Kondo, and Bayraktar remains their only suspect.