IBARAKI (TR) – Ibaraki Prefectural Police have obtained a warrant for the arrest of a man over the fatal stabbing of a man and his wife and injuring of two of their children in the town of Sakai nearly two years ago, reports Kyodo News (May 7).
According to police, the unnamed man stabbed Mitsunori Kobayashi, 48, and Miwa Kobayashi, 50, in their bedroom on the second floor of their residence early on September 23, 2019.
The assailant also stabbed their son, then 13, in the legs and arm while he slept in his room on the second floor. He also stabbed his sister, 11, in the hands.
The results of autopsies conducted on Mitsunori and Miwa revealed that they they both died due to loss of blood. The injuries to the children were not life-threatening, police said previously.
Another daughter, 21, was on the first floor at the time. She was unharmed.
45 kilograms of sulfur
The suspect, 26, lives in Misato City, Saitama Prefecture. Police said on Friday that they plan to arrest him on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.
The arrest would not be his first. Last December, he was prosecuted for allegedly storing 45 kilograms of sulfur at his residence, a violation of the Fire Services Act.
In February, Ibaraki police also arrested him for forging a police badge. He was prosecuted the following month.
“It was dark”
Police believed that the assailant entered the house for the purpose of committing murder since there were no signs that the interior had been ransacked.
Police said on Friday that there could be problems in the case since the son and his sister did not get a good look at the attacker, who was wearing wearing a black hat and a mask.
“Although I couldn’t see [the assailant’s] face because it was dark, I think he was alone,” the boy told police shortly after the incident, according to Kyodo News (Sept. 26, 2019).
At around 12:40 a.m. on the day of the incident, Miwa Kobayashi alerted emergency services. During the roughly one-minute call, she said that she had been wounded.
When police tried to call her back, there was no answer. It is believed that the assailant killed her after she made the initial call.
