GUNMA (TR) – Gunma Prefectural Police on Friday arrested a 24-year-old man for allegedly drowning a newborn baby in a bathtub in Ibaraki Prefecture two years ago.
Around the end of June 2022, Yamato Morita allegedly drowned the newborn girl in a bathtub at an apartment in Joso City.
Morita is a resident of the town of Nakanojo in Gunma. The child was born to a 22-year-old woman with whom he was living at the time.
In commenting on allegations of murder, Morita admitted to the allegations, police said, according to NHK (Sep. 20).
“Left her with an acquaintance”
According to police, the woman visited a medical institution in Gunma Prefecture this past March. After she told staff there that she was pregnant again, she added, “This is our second child, and I have left our eldest daughter in a care [home].”
Later, Nakanojo town hall officials continued to ask the suspect and his wife about the whereabouts of the first child. Eventually, one of them said, “We don’t have the money to look after her, so we’ve left her with an acquaintance.”
After further efforts to locate the child failed, Nakanojo town hall referred the matter to police on July 3. “We have a young child whose whereabouts cannot be confirmed,” officials said.
During questioning, Morita and the woman said that they dumped the baby’s body in a garbage disposal area at the apartment.
On August 29, police arrested the pair on suspicion of abandoning a corpse. The investigation then turned toward Morita on suspicion of murder.
On September 19, prosecutors dropped the abandonment charges.
