Woman, 69, Arrested for 1999 Nagoya Housewife Murder

Nagoya, Oct. 31 (Jiji Press)–Police on Friday arrested a 69-year-old woman for the alleged murder of a housewife in Nagoya in 1999, the capital of the central Japan prefecture of Aichi. According to the Aichi prefectural police, Kumiko Yasufuku, a part-timer in Nagoya, turned herself in at a police station in the city Thursday afternoon. The DNA type of Yasufuku matched that of blood that was collected at the crime site and is believed to belong to a person responsible for the murder. The police arrested her Friday evening. She admitted the allegations against her, saying “That’s correct.” The suspect is alleged to have killed Namiko Takaba, 32, by stabbing her several times in the neck and other parts of her body in a room on the second floor of an apartment in Nagoya’s Nishi Ward on Nov. 13, 1999. Takaba died of blood loss. Investigations found that the incident apparently occurred around noon. The owner of the apartment found Takaba lying face down around 2 p.m. and called an ambulance. She is thought to have defended herself, with injuries on her hands. Numerous bloodstains were left in the living room and the washroom. Takaba’s 2-year-old son, who was at the crime scene, was safe. A woman believed to be aged between around 40 and 50 and apparently with an injured hand was witnessed around the apartment. Type B blood, different from Takaba’s type, was detected in the room where she was found lying. The prefectural police made public in 2015 and 2020 the suspect’s portraits drawn based on eye-witness descriptions. In total, the police have interviewed more than 5,000 people and mobilized over 100,000 officers. Takaba’s husband, Satoru, 69, worked with other crime victims for the abolition of the statute of limitations for murder and other serious crimes, which was then repealed in 2010. In 2020, the National Police Agency made the case subject to rewards of up to 3 million yen. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]