14 DAY TRIAL // A 25-year-old American sailor was found dead in the proximity of the Sasebo naval base, in Japan, at around 5 a.m. local time, this Sunday.
According to Stars and Stripes, the officer, identified as Petty Officer 2nd Class Samuel Lewis Stiles, was discovered on a train platform in Haiki station in Sasebo city, Nagasaki Prefectur, lying face down.
Even though the cause of death is yet to be officially stated, Japanese media outlets have revealed that the man had suffered a severe head injury, or what witnesses described as a “bloody head wound.”
The International Business Times informs that five or six empty cans of Chuhai, a Japanese alcoholic beverage, were found next to the sailor's body. Police suspect he was intoxicated at the time of the accident, but an investigation is on its way, to confirm that the man had been drinking.
Police reports have the man climbing on top of a stationary train and being electrocuted by an overhead power line, which caused him to fall off the train and suffer the head wound.
U.S. sailors at Sasebo are bound by an 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, prompted by a woman's assault and rape near a naval base in Okinawa. Japanese media have stated that the time of death was around 12:30 a.m., on Sunday.
The young man was not wearing his sailor's uniform at the time he was found, his attire launching inquiries into whether or not he was breaking said curfew.
If the man was indeed on a night out partying, which could also be drawn from the number of beverage cans found on the train platform, there is a possibility that the sailor was not alone at the time of the incident.
“There will be an investigation, obviously,” Jon Nylander, spokesman for Commander Naval Forces, said, issuing no other comments.