MORIOKA, Iwate Pref. — Police are using composite sketches to assist the relatives of missing victims of last year's natural disasters.
Toshiro Saito, 47, received a phone call June 26 from a relative who lives in Sendai. Saito, of Saitama Prefecture, had been searching for his parents, who lived in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, before they disappeared in the March 11, 2011, tsunami.
The relative told Saito that a composite sketch published in a local newspaper looked like his father, Shigeo. Only half-believing the news, Saito found the sketch on the Miyagi Prefectural Police's website.
"The eyes and the thin hair on the sketch resembled my father's," Saito recalled.
A few days later, he visited the police station in Kesennuma. Tears filled his eyes when he was shown a khaki sweater he recognized as belonging to his dad.
After a DNA test, the body was confirmed to be that of Shigeo Saito.
It turned out his body was found only five...
continue reading
