The murderer, 27, confessed. Investigations started following the disappearance of a young woman. He had expressed the desire to commit suicide. It is not the first case of a death wish leading to murder.
Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) – The remains of nine people have been found in 27-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi's flat in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture. Arrested today, the suspect hacked the corpses to pieces before placing them in boxes and refrigerators, covered by what appears to be cat-sand.
Of the nine casualties, eight are women. Shiraishi confessed to the police that he had dismembered the bodies in his own bathroom. The murders and mutilation of the corpses were carried out between August 22 and October 30.
The police began investigations on October 24, when a man denounced the disappearance of his younger sister. He had no contact from her since October 21st. The young woman, 23, resident in Hachioji (Western Tokyo), had written on twitter: "I want to die, but doing it alone is terrible. I'm looking for someone to die with me. " The girl had exchanged messages with Shiraishi on a suicide site. The cameras at JR Hachioji and Sobudaimae stations (on the Odakyu line) filmed the young woman with her assassin. Shiraishi stated that it was their first and only meeting when he killed her. Her body is thought to be among the nine found.
The building where the macabre discovery was made is two storey, has 12 units and is located near the Sobudaime station. One of the residents stated that the murderer had moved in only two months earlier, and that since then an unpleasant odour had been present in the apartment.
It is not the first time that homicides occur as a result of exchanges of suicide messages. In 2005, in Osaka Prefecture police arrested a man for killing a 25-year-old woman, a 14-year-old boy and a 21-year-old college student. He had offered to kill them all with anthracite.
Although falling, the high rate of suicide in Japan is a deeply felt problem and remains the highest among G7 countries.