French court sentences Chilean to life for murdering Japanese ex-girlfriend in 2016

LYON, France - A French court on March 26 sentenced a Chilean to life in jail for killing his Japanese ex-girlfriend in 2016, increasing his sentence in the latest ruling in the missing body case.

It found Nicolas Zepeda, 35, was guilty “beyond all doubt” of the premeditated murder of Narumi Kurosaki, a 21-year-old student, in the eastern city of Besancon.

Zepeda, who has been in detention since being extradited from Chile in 2020 and has always claimed his innocence, listened to the verdict with his face in his hands.

His lawyer said he would be lodging an appeal with the country’s top court.

In the front row, the victim’s mother, accompanied by Kurosaki’s sisters, held and gently touched a photo of the young woman.

The court in the city of Lyon ruled that Zepeda had murdered his ex-girlfriend on the night of Dec 4 to 5, 2016, “by suffocation”, “probably by strangulation or smothering”, according to the verdict read out by presiding judge Eric Chalbos.

A lower court had in 2022 sentenced the Chilean to 28 years over the killing, and an appeals court upheld that verdict in 2023.

France’s top court in 2025 ordered a retrial because investigators had withheld evidence from his defence team.

Zepeda and Kurosaki began a romantic relationship in 2014 in Japan, where the Chilean was studying.

But, the prosecution argued, he could not bear her leaving him to continue her studies in France in the summer of 2016, and then falling in love with another student.

After stalking her online and sending her a threatening video, he travelled from Chile to France without telling her, the investigation showed.

He spied on her for four days and three nights, according to witnesses and surveillance footage, then invited her to a restaurant and went back to her room with her on the night of her disappearance.

Flammable product, matches

Kurosaki was last seen in surveillance video footage in her dormitory on Dec 4, 2016, and her body was never found.

Investigators found her wallet, which contained 565 euros and bank cards, mobile phone, transport pass, winter coat and shoes in her room.

The defendant admitted in court that he had stayed in her room for more than 24 hours, as revealed by geolocation data from his mobile phone and rental car.

Zepeda had days earlier bought a jerrycan of a flammable product, matches and a spray bottle of detergent including bleach, the investigation showed.

Public prosecutor Vincent Auger argued this showed premeditation, even if he likely then decided to dispose of her body in the nearby Doubs river instead.

Five days later, Zepeda bought a train ticket in Kurosaki’s name for a trip to the nearby city of Lyon.

The prosecution argued he also sent messages from her email and social media account to reassure her friends and relatives, though he denied ever doing this.

He eventually returned to Chile later the same month, after spending time in the Spanish city of Barcelona. AFP