CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Japanese police said Tuesday they found weapons believed to have been used in the off-base slaying of a Kadena airman earlier this month.

Investigators recovered a backpack and two knives from a river in an area south of Naha on Monday afternoon, two weeks after Tech Sgt. Curtis Eccleston suffered a neck wound and bled to death Feb. 6 on the floor of his Mihama apartment.

Police have not conclusively linked the knives and the backpack to Eccleston’s slaying and must perform forensic testing for DNA or other evidence, a police spokesman said Tuesday.

They were led to the items in the river by information given by an airman assigned to Kadena Air Base who has been held in pretrial confinement on Camp Hansen since Feb. 13, according to the spokesman.

The detained airman, whose name was not released by the Air Force, had not been charged with any crimes as of Tuesday, according to 18th Wing spokesman 1st Lt. Bryan Bouchard.

The Air Force has 120 days from the start of his confinement to file charges, according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Bouchard said in an e-mail response to Stars and Stripes.

The service has taken jurisdiction over the airman, and Japanese investigators have been granted access to the confined servicemember to conduct interviews, Bouchard said.

Meanwhile, the wife of the dead airman, Barbara Keiko Eccleston, 32, of Brazil, remained in the custody of Japanese authorities Tuesday after being arrested last week and charged with murder.

Her case has been handed over to Japanese prosecutors, who have 23 days from the time of arrest to bring charges before a court, according to police.

trittent@pstripes.osd.mil

sumidac@pstripes.osd.mil

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