SAGA (TR) – Saga Prefectural Police suspect that a male government official survived and his wife perished in a double-suicide bid in which the vehicle they were using accidentally caught fire late last month, reports the Sankei Shimbun (July 12).
On June 25, emergency services working on a tip arrived at a car on fire along the shoulder of National Route 263 in the village of Mitsuse in Saga City.
A man later identified as an employee at the Kyushu Regional Bureau of the National Personnel Authority, aged in his 30s, was found with burns to his legs from the knees down outside the vehicle nearby, according to the Saga Kita Police Station. He was transported to a hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening.
A charred corpse later confirmed to be the man’s wife, aged in her 40s, was discovered in the passenger seat. The results of an autopsy revealed the cause of her death to be carbon monoxide poisoning, police said. It was also revealed that her blood was found to contain a sleeping medication.
Commit suicide together
During questioning, the man, who was the driver of the vehicle, said that he and his wife planned to commit suicide together by inhaling fumes from burning charcoal briquettes inside the vehicle, according to Saga TV (July 12). Police believe that it is likely that the vehicle caught fire during that process.
