Overview
- In Tomioka, Gunma, police arrested Tomita Kenichi, 55, on suspicion of stealing an 81-year-old woman’s bankbooks and seal and say he has admitted the theft.
- The woman, identified as Tomita Harue, 81, was found dead in a vacant house about 50 meters from her home that the suspect says he lived in several years earlier.
- Officers located the suspect on a street in Kamisato, Saitama, late on Dec. 31 and found him carrying the victim’s bankbooks before arresting him early Jan. 1.
- Authorities plan a judicial autopsy on the Gunma victim as they investigate how she died and examine the suspect’s connection to the circumstances.
- In a separate case in Sakai, Fukui, police arrested a 50-year-old woman on suspicion of abandoning the body of her cohabiting brother from early December until Dec. 30, and she denies the allegation.