Possible Handlers Arrested in Tochigi Robbery-Murder Case

Utsunomiya, Tochigi Pref., May 17 (Jiji Press)–Japanese police on Sunday arrested a 28-year-old man and his 25-year-old wife in connection with a robbery-murder incident targeting an elderly woman in Tochigi Prefecture, eastern Japan, believing that they were handlers who gave instructions to the perpetrators. The development came after four 16-year-old boys, all high school students, were arrested as suspected perpetrators. The Tochigi prefectural police department arrested the first boy on Thursday, the day of the crime, the second on Friday and the third and fourth on Saturday. Investigators have not disclosed whether the suspects have admitted to the crime. The possible handlers, who are from Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, were arrested on suspicion of robbery-murder. The man, Kaito Takemae, was arrested while attempting to leave the country from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, and his wife, Miyu, was taken into custody at a hotel in Kanagawa where she was staying with her seven-month-old daughter. The couple are both unemployed. Investigators believe that there may be other handlers and that the four boys were recruited by a “tokuryu” anonymous and fluid criminal group to participate in the attack. The four boys, all from Kanagawa, are suspected of breaking into the house of 69-year-old Eiko Tomiyama in the Tochigi town of Kaminokawa to search for valuables at around 9:25 a.m. on Thursday and murdering the resident including by stabbing her. According to the prefectural police, a knife and a crowbar were seized from the crime scene. At least 20 stab and other wounds were found on Tomiyama’s body, with some deep enough to reach her organs. The second arrested among the four boys attended the same high school as the first and was acquainted with the third. Some of the boys did not know each other, and the prefectural police are investigating their relationships. The police referred the first arrested boy to prosecutors on Saturday and the second and third on Sunday. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]