TOTTORI--Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the suspicious deaths of three men acquainted with a 35-year-old former hostess who is under arrest for fraud, it was learned Thursday.

The Tottori prefectural police detected a sedative in the bodies of the men found between April and October in Tottori Prefecture and suspect foul play.

It has been confirmed that several other acquaintances of the arrested woman have also died, and the police are investigating whether she was connected to their deaths.

According to the police, a truck driver, 47, from the prefecture was found on the ocean floor in the Sea of Japan off Hokueicho, Tottori Prefecture, on April 11. The man was nude and bore no sign of external injuries.

On Oct. 7, the body of a 57-year-old electrician from Tottori was found facedown in a 20-centimeter-deep section of the Manigawa river in the city. He appeared to have sustained blows to the face.

A 58-year-old unemployed man was also found dead on the morning of Oct. 27 in his apartment in Tottori. He lived in the same apartment building as the woman.

The woman, who was arrested on Nov. 2 on suspicion of defrauding another woman of 1.26 million yen, was quoted as telling the police that she knew nothing about the deaths of the three men.

The woman, who is from the central part of the prefecture, began working as a hostess at a bar in the Tottori entertainment district about five years ago.

According to the operator of the bar, the woman was a good conversationalist and popular with male customers.

She was living with her five children in a 25,000 yen-a-month apartment owned by the bar operator and remained there even after she quit her hostess job in February. She reportedly lived within modest means.