A 21-year-old man was arrested Dec. 6 in connection with the September slaying of a 5-year-old girl in Togane, Chiba Prefecture, police said.

Ryo Katsuki, an unemployed resident of Togane, is suspected of dumping the body of nursery school student Yukimaro Narita on the side of a road in the town.

He has all but admitted killing the girl, police said.

"On that day, I met a girl about 5 years old, but I can't remember what happened later," he was initially quoted as saying. Pressed further, he said, "It's me who dumped her shoes and clothes in the bags."

The suspect lives in a condominium about 100 meters from where Narita's naked body was found, and fingerprints found on two plastic shopping bags containing the girl's shoes and clothes, and found in the parking lot of his building match Katsuki's, police said.