One of the three is said to have been in financial trouble with a woman in the city, who was arrested earlier this month over a fraud case, prompting the local police to investigate if the three had common associations, according to the sources.

Among the three is Hideki Maruyama, 57, who was found in a river in Tottori on Oct. 7, with his trousers ripped and his face injured. The cause of his death was suffocation.

The body of another man, Kazumi Yabe, 47, was found in the ocean off Tottori Prefecture in April after his family reported to the police that he had disappeared.