Overview
- Kobe District Court sentenced Notsu Hideaki, 28, to life in prison for killing his grandmother, brother and mother with a crossbow in 2020 in Takarazuka and seriously injuring his aunt.
- The court found full criminal responsibility and extreme premeditation, noting the deliberate choice of a powerful crossbow and planning of the killings, and it rejected prosecutors’ request for the death penalty.
- Judge Matsuda acknowledged limited mental-health influence and elements of extended suicide as mitigating factors and said lifelong atonement was appropriate.
- Aichi Prefectural Police arrested Anfuku Kumiko, 69, in the 1999 murder of Namiko Takaha in Nagoya after she turned herself in and a DNA match was found with bloodstains from the scene; she told police the allegation was accurate.
- The victim’s husband preserved the crime-scene apartment for 26 years and campaigned with a victims’ group, and police said the arrested woman was his former high school classmate.