FUKUOKA (TR) – Police here have arrested a 30-year-old woman on suspicion of murder after her two young daughters were found strangled inside a maternal and child support facility, reports TV Asahi (Apr 24).
Nahoko Mizunuma, a part-time worker of no fixed address, is accused of using an electrical cord to strangle her 4-year-old daughter, Nisai, while she slept during the early hours of March 10 in Kama City.
Upon her arrest, Mizunuma admitted to the allegations. She also hinted at her involvement in the death of her 3-year-old daughter, Mika, who was found collapsed at the scene alongside her.
When authorities arrived at the facility, they found the two children and Mizunuma collapsed on the floor. Mizunuma had superficial knife wounds to her own neck. Police suspect she murdered the girls before attempting to disguise the grisly crime as a forced murder-suicide.
The incident appears to have stemmed from a bitter domestic dispute. Mizunuma told police she became suicidal after a fight with her common-law husband, 33-year-old Koki Shimizu.
“He told me he ‘hated’ me,” she was quoted as saying. “I wondered what all my devotion had been for, and I wanted to die.”
According to investigative sources, Mizunuma initially moved into the shelter four years ago to escape domestic violence from Shimizu. However, the couple had secretly resumed living together at the facility in violation of rules three years ago, with Mizunuma reportedly supporting him financially.
Shimizu, the biological father of the girls, was also arrested on suspicion of abandonment by a person responsible for protection after allegedly fleeing the apartment when he discovered the three collapsed. He was later released by the prosecutor’s office.
Police are continuing to investigate the exact circumstances leading up to the fatal incident and the full extent of the couple’s domestic turmoil.
