Nicola Furlong: 2 Americans arrested in connection with the Irish student's death in Tokyo

GlobalPost

Police have detained two American men as part of an investigation into the strangling death of Nicola Furlong, 21, an Irish exchange student in Tokyo.

According to CNN, Furlong was found dead in a hotel room with one of the men. 

The men, 19 and 23, were not charged in Furlong's death, but were detained on suspicion of giving alcoholic drinks to Furlong's friend, also a 21-year-old Irish woman, and then groping her inside a taxi, reported Agence-France Presse.

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Furlong and her friend are said to have left a Nicki Minaj concert and gone back to the upscale hotel where the men — one who is believed to be a high-profile backing dancer — were staying, according to the Daily Mail. In the early hours of Thursday, another hotel guest complained about a loud noise coming from one of the rooms. An employee went to the room and found Furlong lying on the floor near the bed and the 19-year-old American man standing nearby.

Furlong's family told of her death Thursday morning, reported the Irish Independent.

"It's devastating, absolutely devastating," a family member told the Independent. "Poor Andrew [Furlong's father] still doesn't want to believe it. He is in total disbelief. He would swap with her in the morning."

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