Navy launches investigation after police find US soldier’s wife dead in Japanese hotel

Fukuoka, Japan’s sixth largest city, is less than a two-hour drive from Sasebo Naval Base. (Aaron Kidd/Stars and Stripes)

A woman found dead in a Fukuoka hotel room this week was the wife of a US soldier, according to Japanese police and local media reports.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating an incident involving “U.S. Navy personnel” at Naval Base Sasebo, a spokesman for Commander, 7th Fleet, said. Megan Greene told Stars and Stripes in an email Tuesday.

“Due to the ongoing investigation, we are unable to comment further at this time,” he wrote.

Fukuoka Prefectural police found the woman after receiving a tip from a hotel in the city’s Chuo district at 9:20 a.m. Monday morning, a police spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone on Tuesday.

A police news release said the woman “died an unnatural death.”

The woman was an American and the wife of a U.S. military member, according to a report by Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting Co. on Tuesday, citing police and Sasebo Naval Base.

U.S. forces detained the husband for questioning and Japanese police were cooperating with the U.S. investigation, the report said.

Security cameras showed “a person associated with the US base” visited the hotel with the woman around 7pm on Friday and left alone on Sunday morning, Kyodo News reported on Tuesday, citing “investigative officials”.

Kyodo described the woman as “the wife of a foreigner and a person associated with the US base.”

Police found him lying and covered in blood and said he may have been involved in a crime, the report said.

The police spokesman did not identify the hotel, but the address he gave matches Hotel SOL.

Some Japanese government officials are required to speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.