SAITAMA — Three men and a woman died from carbon monoxide poisoning after burning portable cookers inside a sealed van, police said.
A man who spotted the car in a mountainous area of Minano, Saitama Prefecture, called police Tuesday afternoon, saying, “I’ve found a bunch of people slumped in a parked van.”
Saitama police officers arrived on the scene to find three men and a woman dead inside the car.
After finding suicide notes in their clothing and bags saying they were “disgusted with the world,” the officers concluded that they had committed suicide.
The officers also found four portable cooking stoves that contained briquette braziers.
The group had sealed the windows of the car with plastic tape so that carbon monoxide would not escape.
All four, who looked to be about 25 years old, had been dead for about two days, the officers said. Rice balls and bread were also found in the van.