Narumi Kurosaki is possibly murdered by her ex-boyfriend Nicolas Zepeda Contreras

21-year-old Narumi Kurosaki, who went missing in the city of Besancon on December 4th, is believed to be murdered by her ex-boyfriend Nicolas Zepeda Contreras. In a video published by French and Japanese media (see below), the ex-boyfriend accuses her of doing "bad things" and threatens Kurosaki with unnamed consequences if she did not fulfill unspecified conditions.

"She needs to build trust and she needs to pay a little cost of what she did and assume (sic) that she cannot go around making those kinds of mistakes with a person who loves her," he added.[1]

After this development, police in eastern France started searching a forest for the body of her on Thursday. The newspaper Le Parisien reported that signals from Contreras’ phone had been traced to the Forest of Chaux. Her ex-boyfriend has escaped to his country, Chile. On Wednesday, Chilean media reported that Contreras might be hiding in the city of La Serena in central Chile. Reports said he was seen entering a condominium Monday night in a vehicle his father owns, adding that his mother lives in the building.[2]

Nicolas Zepeda Contreras exhibited stalker-like behavior prior to the disappearance of Narumi Kurosaki. On Kurosaki ate at a restaurant with the suspect on the outskirts of Besancon on December 4. She returned to her university dormitory with him that evening and has not been seen since. Authorities in France have confirmed that Contreras returned to Chile on December 13. Even with Kurosaki’s whereabouts still not known, French police believe that the suspect likely killed her.[3]

Narumi Kurosaki had been studying in Besancon since September.

Contreras is also believed to have posed as Kurosaki in posting messages on social media in a bid to throw off investigators, according to Nippon News Network (Jan. 5).


On December 7, Contreras likely posted a message from Kurosaki’s Facebook account saying, “I broke up with my boyfriend.”

Narumi Kurosaki, who had been studying in Besancon since September, met the Chilean teaching assistant Nicolas Zepeda Contreras in Japan, but the pair later split. Several students living on the same floor of her university residence said they heard a loud cry on the night of Dec. 4. Anne-Laure Saillet, 20, said she heard “bangs on the doors and furniture, and afterwards I heard a very shrill cry, very sharp and loud. It was a woman’s cry. At first I thought it was a horror film, but when it continued I became worried.”[2]

In this video released by French and Japanese media, Nicolas Zepeda Contreras threatens Narumi Kurosaki with unnamed consequences if she did not fulfil unspecified conditions.

[1] - French police search forest for body of Japanese student
[2] - French police comb forest for missing Japanese student; suspect identified
[3] - French authorities: Chilean suspect in disappearance of Japanese woman ‘extremely dangerous’