A Chinese tourist who went missing in Japan last month has been confirmed as dead after her body was found near the sea by fishermen in Hokkaido. Earlier today, Japanese police announced that DNA tests proved that the body found on Sunday was that of 27-year-old Wei Qiujie, a Chinese primary school teacher from Fujian's Nanping city who had mysteriously disappeared in late July during a solo trip through Japan. Police said that Wei had drowned.
Wei was supposed to return home from her trip on July 25th. When she did not, her family became alarmed and contacted the authorities.
After arriving in Japan's northernmost Hokkaido island on July 18th, she was seen four days later, leaving behind her bulky luggage at a Sapporo hostel. In surveillance video from the hostel, Wei looks happy and unconcerned as she stores her luggage and heads out the door.
Later, police discovered that Wei had checked into a hotel at Akan Lake, located about 300 kilometers from Sapporo, that same day before heading on to the coastal city of Kushiro the next day, where she was last spotted in convenience store surveillance footage.
Back at her hostel in Sapporo, police discovered a handwritten note inside her baggage addressed to her parents, which thanked them for raising her, but said that she wanted to make a new start. Wei's family has insisted that the note was not a farewell letter.
