Father Arrested for Allegedly Murdering Boy in Kyoto

(The first paragraph should have read, “…arrested a 37-year-old man Wednesday…” instead of as sent. A substitute story follows.) Father Arrested for Allegedly Murdering Boy in Kyoto Kyoto, May 6 (Jiji Press)–Police arrested a 37-year-old man Wednesday for allegedly murdering his 11-year-old son, whose body was found in a forest area in Nantan in Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan, in April, investigative sources said. The father, who was initially arrested last month on suspicion of abandoning the body of his son, Yuki Adachi, is suspected of having killed the boy in a public restroom in the city, about 2 kilometers from their home, on March 23. In a voluntary questioning before his arrest, the father said that he got into an argument with his son, got angry at his words and strangled him on impulse, the sources said. The father, Yuki Adachi, is the adoptive father of the boy on the family register, according to the Kyoto prefectural police department. The first names of the father and the boy are spelled the same in English but are written and pronounced differently in Japanese. The prefectural police believe there was a problem between the two and are investigating the circumstances. The boy went missing after his mother saw him eating breakfast at their home on the morning of March 23. He was found dead in a forest area about 8 km northeast of his home on April 13 with no visible injuries, and the cause of death has not been identified. On April 16, the prefectural police arrested the father on suspicion of abandoning the body of his son. The suspect is believed to have put the body in a car and moved it to several places in the city, including a mountainous area near his home. Initially, the father told the prefectural police that the boy got out of his car near Sonobe Elementary School, which the child attended, and went missing. But the boy was not seen on the school’s security camera footage. The suspect is believed to have driven to the area near the school but did not drop his son off and went to a public restroom, which is believed to be the scene of the murder. The boy’s school backpack and the sneakers he is believed to have been wearing were found in separate mountainous areas. The prefectural police are proceeding with their investigation, believing that the suspect knows something about these items. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]