FUKUSHIMA (TR) – Fukushima Prefectural Police have arrested a 53-year-old woman who is believed to have lived with the corpse of her mother for two years after her death, reports Kahoku Shimpo (Dec. 13).
At around 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, officers from the Iwaki-Higashi Police Station working off a tip visited the residence and found the skeletal corpse inside a clothing storage case inside the residence, located in the Onahama area.
The following day, officers arrested Michiyo Anzai on suspicion of abandoning a corpse. During questioning, she said that her mother died in September, 2016 at the age of 85. “After she died, I left her as is,” the suspect was quoted by police. She also expressed doubt that she could pay for a funeral.
The results of an autopsy scheduled for Thursday will be used to determine the cause of death, police said.
The suspect shared the residence with her mother. On Tuesday, relatives alerted police after being unable to contact them over an extended period. When police entered the residence on Wednesday, the suspect was in Ibaraki Prefecture. She was then taken in for questioning.
