TOTTORI--Police searched the apartment of a former bar hostess under arrest for murder-robbery Monday, suspecting she also killed and robbed a truck driver who was found drowned off Tottori Prefecture in April, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The Tottori prefectural police believe Miyuki Ueta, 36, killed the truck driver to avoid paying money she owed him.

In both cases, the men died in similar circumstances. According to sources, the truck driver, Kazumi Yabe, 47, went missing on April 4, 2009, and was found drowned in the sea off Hokueicho on April 11. The police found traces of a sleep inducer in his body.

Ueta's live-in partner, 46, who has been indicted on suspicion of fraud and other charges, reportedly told police that Ueta invited him on April 4 to come to a beach in Hokueicho, where she had been earlier in the day with Yabe. When he arrived, Yabe was not there, and Ueta reportedly told him, "Yabe left after we had a fight."

The police suspect Ueta slipped Yabe a sleep inducer and drowned him.

The circumstances of his death are similar to those of Hideki Maruyama, 57, whom Ueta allegedly drowned in a Tottori river last October. Sleep inducer components discovered in both of the bodies match.