French Woman Missing in Tochigi Prefecture for Eight Years as Family Seeks Answers
Tiphaine Belon, a 36-year-old French woman, has been missing for eight years since she disappeared in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, in 2018. On the anniversary, police distributed multilingual flyers near Nikko Station, joined by her mother Anne Dezel, 67. Despite 245 tips received, no effective leads have emerged, and the number of informants is declining.
Tiphaine Belon, a 36-year-old French woman, has been missing for eight years since she disappeared in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, in 2018. On July 28, police distributed flyers around Nikko Station appealing for information, joined by Belon's mother Anne Dezel, 67, and other family members. Dezel described the past eight years as painful and expressed a desire to know the truth.
The flyers were printed in Japanese, French, English, and Chinese. To date, the prefectural police have received 245 tips from witnesses, but none have yielded effective leads. Police noted that the number of people providing information has declined in recent years and urged the public to come forward with even minor details.
According to the prefectural police, Belon arrived in Nikko on July 28, 2018, for a trip and left her accommodation around 10 a. m. the following day before disappearing. She is approximately 165 cm tall with brown hair.