Murder of Narumi Kurosaki

Narumi Kurosaki was a Japanese woman who disappeared in the city of Besançon, France, during December 2016 and is believed to have been murdered. The primary suspect in her case is Nicolás Zepeda, her former boyfriend from Chile, whom she had met while in Japan and separated from two months prior to her disappearance. The international nature of the case garnered significant attention, as authorities from three different continents—France (Europe), Japan (Asia), and Chile (South America)—were involved in the judicial process.

On 12 April 2022, Zepeda was found guilty of murder and subsequently sentenced to 28 years in prison. A retrial commenced on 4 December 2023, originally starting on 21 February but temporarily suspended when Zepeda's defense lawyer, Antoine Vey, withdrew from the case. The retrial concluded on 22 December and found him guilty a second time, upholding the original sentence.

Background
Narumi Kurosaki (黒崎 愛海, Kurosaki Narumi, born 23 July 1995 – disappeared 5 December 2016) grew up in a family of five, with her parents and two younger sisters, Honami and Kurumi. From 2011 to 2014, she attended Tokyo Metropolitan Kokusai High School. Narumi was 21 years old when she arrived in France on 26 August 2016 to study at the University of Franche-Comté in the city of Besançon. There, she took French classes at the Center for Applied Linguistics before being joining the Faculty of Economics in January. Narumi lived in a student room on the second floor of the Théodore Rousseau residence hall located on the La Bouloie campus.

Nicolás Humberto Zepeda Contreras (born 11 December 1990) was born into a Chilean family of three children. His father, Humberto Zepeda, is one of the main executives of the telecommunications provider Movistar. His mother, Ana Luz Contreras, is an engineer who worked as a secretary to Senator Francisco Huenchumilla at the time and also worked in the human resources department of the municipality of La Serena. Nicolás grew up with his twin sisters, Belén and Josefa, in Temuco in the south of the country, attending Colegio Centenario until 2008 and obtaining his high school diploma. In 2009, the family moved to Antofagasta and later to La Serena. Nicolás studied administrative sciences at the University of Chile. After the case became public, various members of Zepeda's family were harassed by journalists.

In 2014, Nicolás arrived in Japan to continue his studies, where he met Narumi during October at a party held on the campus of the University of Tsukuba. They began a romantic relationship in February 2015, and the couple traveled to Chile from September 6 to October 1, 2015, where Nicolás introduced her to his family as his partner. Nicolás left Japan in 2015 at the end of his university year but returned on April 12, 2016, to look for work. According to statements by Nicolás himself, Narumi officially ended her romantic relationship with him shortly after arriving in France on October 6. Zepeda left Japan on October 9. In Besançon, Narumi met new people, including Arthur del Piccolo, a student at the Higher National School of Mechanics and Microtechnology, who became her new boyfriend.

Events
On Sunday, 4 December, 2016, Narumi went to her dance class as usual, leaving at around 4:00 PM. In the night between Sunday and Monday, at around 3:20 AM, about fifteen students from the residence where Narumi was staying heard screams followed by a thud. Rachel Hope, a British student, messaged a friend: "I'm scared, I heard a noise like someone was being killed." Another student, Nabil Drissi, went out into the hallway to investigate, but was not able to determine the source of the sounds. The following day, Narumi's classmates were concerned about her absence from class, stating that she had never missed a class.

Over the next few days, Narumi's family and friends received messages from her phone via text and social media claiming that she had a problem with her passport and needed to go to the Japanese consulate in Lyon. On 6 December, her bank card was used to purchase a one-way train ticket to Lyon. However, all the train passengers who occupied seats close to the one assigned on her ticket claimed not to have seen any young women resembling Narumi. Other messages reached her relatives in the following days, indicating that she had a new boyfriend and that she was going alone. No more messages were received after 12 December.

On December 14, the Center for Applied Linguistics in Besançon alerted the police, who entered Narumi's room on 15 December in the late afternoon. Upon quickly realizing the seriousness of the situation, investigators initially suspected Arthur, Narumi's new boyfriend. During his interrogation, Del Piccolo mentioned Narumi's former Chilean lover, Nicolás Zepeda Contreras, whom he presented to investigators as a jealous and possessive man who had even hacked into Del Piccolo's Facebook account. Initially, this information was not considered decisive given the geographical distance. However, thanks to the geolocation of Narumi's phone, investigators discovered that she was in a restaurant on the night of 4 December and that the bill had been paid with a Chilean bank card.

In fact, on the night of Sunday, 4 December, Narumi Kurosaki and Nicolás Zepeda Contreras had dinner at La Table de Gustave restaurant, in the small town of Ornans located about twenty kilometers south of Besançon. A camera recorded them leaving the restaurant at 9:57 PM, and then, at 10:58 PM., other surveillance footage recorded their arrival at Narumi's college dorm. According to Zepeda's own testimony, the "screams" were in reality Narumi's moans, as the couple allegedly had sex for two and a half hours after arriving at her dorm. On the night of December 5th, Del Piccolo was just outside Kurosaki's apartment and was planning on entering until he received messages from her number, where she allegedly stated that she had 'found someone else' and was leaving him. Zepeda was the last person to see Narumi alive. As of 2024, Narumi's body has not been found.

Narumi's room inspection
The police entered room 106, Narumi's, on December 15 at 5:31 p.m. and found it to be perfectly tidy, although Narumi's friends pointed out that she was usually quite messy. Specifically, her only coat was found at the scene even though winter had begun, along with her laptop and wallet containing 565 euros in cash. As the police took inventory of Narumi's belongings, they realized that a blanket, a suitcase, her passport, and her phone were missing. The fingerprints taken from a cup, after analysis, showed that they belonged to Nicolás Zepeda Contreras. From the DNA reconstructed from the fingerprints, investigators found traces of the suspect on a water bottle, a T-shirt, the walls, the bathroom floor, and the edge of the sink. The French police also found samples of the victim's blood on the emergency door, which Zepeda used as he exited the building.

Digital data analysis
In response to Nicolás asking her to delete some of her Facebook contacts, Narumi wrote him an SMS dated 5 September 2016, stating: "I will never delete Arthur". On September 7, Zepeda posted a video on Dailymotion in which he talks about his relationship with Narumi in disturbing terms: "She has to pay a little for what she has done and accept that she cannot continue making these kinds of mistakes with someone who loves her." He also specified in this video that "certain conditions are applicable during her stay in France, and others are applicable forever. If she cannot follow these conditions for two weeks, within two weeks, I will enforce these conditions with immediate effect."

Witness testimonies
Juan Felipe Ramírez Contreras, cousin of Nicolás Zepeda who spent five days with him in Barcelona before his return to Chile, was questioned by Catalan police on January 24, 2017. He provided several worrying details about their conversations during this stay. Nicolás Zepeda had hidden his meeting with Narumi in Besançon, explaining that he had simply come to Europe to participate in a conference in Geneva. Zepeda also asked Ramírez, who was a medical student, about death by suffocation. Ramírez also revealed that he was surprised by a phrase used by Nicolás in which he referred of Narumi in the past tense: "Narumi really liked the sea."

Extradition of the suspect
On Monday, May 18, 2020, the Chilean Supreme Court of Justice authorized the extradition of Nicolás Zepeda Contreras to France. Zepeda had been under house arrest in Viña del Mar since the end of June. On July 23, 2020, he was transferred by the Investigations Police of Chile (Policía de Investigaciones, PDI) to the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport to be handed over to French authorities. After a flight to Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport that landed in the late morning of 24 July, he was transferred by car to Besançon and arrived at around 4:40 PM. Zepeda was brought before the investigating judge who announced his murder charge, and then before the liberties and detention judge. Finally, he was imprisoned in the Besançon pre-trial detention center.

Trial against Nicolás Zepeda
The trial against Nicolás Zepeda Contreras, called the "Great Trial" by the French Ministry of Justice, began on 29 March 2022 in the Cour d'Assises (court) of Besançon, Doubs. Due to the international scope of the case, the trial had an exceptional schedule: all exchanges were subject to simultaneous translation by a team of six interpreters, three for Japanese and three for Spanish. Three clocks displayed the time in France, Japan and Chile to account for the time difference. Many witnesses from abroad were heard by videoconference, including ten from Tokyo, two from Santiago de Chile, and one from Scotland. In addition to the main courtroom, two other rooms were open for journalists and the public to follow the debates broadcast on a giant screen.

Zepeda was defended by Maître Jacqueline Laffont, a lawyer from the Paris Bar Association who notably defended the former President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy during a wiretapping case, Alexandre Benalla in the Benalla affair, and former Minister Nicolas Hulot in the investigation of sexual assault charges. She was assisted by her associate Maître Julie Benedetti.

Narumi's family was represented by Sylvie Galley, a lawyer from the Besançon bar association. Maître Randall Schwerdorffer, a lawyer from the Besançon bar association known for his role as defense attorney in the famous Daval and Frédéric Péchier cases, joined the civil party representing Arthur del Piccolo, Narumi's boyfriend at the time of Narumi's disappearance. The Advocate General was Étienne Manteaux, Prosecutor General of Besançon since September 2018. The process was led by Matthieu Husson, President of the Criminal Court. Humberto Zepeda and Ana Luz Contreras, the parents of Nicolás Zepeda Contreras, as well as Taeko and Kurumi Kurosaki, the mother and sister of Narumi Kurosaki, were present in Besançon to follow the two weeks of trial and testify there.

One crucial piece of evidence presented during the trial was Zepeda's blogspot page, where he often shared stories about his relationship presented as fictional works. Zepeda was also active on various online forums such as Smule, last.fm, and DeviantArt, where he posted various Japanese-styled drawings. French authorities claimed that intercepted private messages between Narumi and Zepeda on social media showed Zepeda to be jealous and possessive. During the trial, Zepeda pleaded innocence, claiming that he did not kill Narumi.

On 12 April 2022, Zepeda was found guilty and sentenced to 28 years in prison. He is expected to serve the first 15 years in France, after which he could be extradited to Chile to serve the remaining 13 years.

Retrial
On 21 February 2023, a retrial commenced before the Cour d'Assises of Haute-Saône in Vesoul as Zepeda appealed his sentence, with the proceedings planned to conclude on 10 March 2023. Previously, on 15 November 2022, Me Jacqueline Laffont's office formally communicated their decision to cease collaboration with Zepeda to the Besançon Court of Appeal. Subsequently, Antoine Vey, a former associate of French Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti, took over as the defense counsel for the accused. In attendance at the appeal trial were the civil parties: Narumi's second sister, Honami Kurosaki, and her boyfriend at the time of her murder, Arthur Del Piccolo, who were absent during the initial trial, alongside Narumi's mother and her other sister.

During the opening of the appeal trial on 21 February 2023, the court's president announced that he had received a letter from Antoine Vey on 18 February, indicating his withdrawal from the trial due to the client's decision to terminate his representation. The Zepeda family then selected new legal representation, namely Renaud Portejoie from the Bar Association of Clermont-Ferrand and Julien Dreyfus from the Paris Bar Association. The trial was temporarily suspended for 48 hours to allow the new legal team to review the investigation file.

On 23 February 2023, Zepeda's new lawyers sought the postponement of the trial, citing insufficient preparation time to adequately defend their client. The court granted their request, leading to the rescheduling of the trial for December 4 to December 20, 2023. On 17 November 2023, Julien Dreyfus announces his withdrawal from defending Zepeda, prompting the accused to hire a new lawyer, Sylvain Cormier, known for representing footballer Karim Benzema in the sextape case. This time, Zepeda's defense team hopes to include various witnesses who claim to have seen Narumi alive after the supposed date of death, including Saïd Nemeri, who claims she went into hiding with the help of a French soldier, allegedly having seen her on 11 December 2016.

The retrial began on 4 December 2023. On 21 December 2023, the Cour d'Assises of Haute-Saône in Vesoul confirmed that Nicolás Zepeda was guilty of murdering Narumi Kurosaki, and handed him a 28-year prison sentence to be served in France in its entirety. His defense immediately announced an appeal to the Court of Cassation.