HOKKAIDO (TR) – A 20-year-old woman from Asahikawa City who has been accused of murdering a high school girl by shoving her off a bridge is seeking leniency, she announced this week.
The unnamed woman, aged 19 at the time of arrest, has been indicted on charges of murder and other crimes. She held a press conference on Tuesday and stated that she would not contest the facts at trial, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Dec. 17)
Early on April 19, the woman and Riko Uchida, 22, took Runa Murayama, a 17-year-old high school student from Rumoi City, to the Kamui Ohashi bridge, located on the outskirts of Asahikawa, and allegedly forced her to tumble into the river ten meters below.
According to the woman’s lawyer, she and Uchida had Murayama sit on the railing of the bridge. Murayama then grabbed the woman’s arm and climbed down onto the bridge once, but the two of them made her sit on the railing again facing the river. They then pushed her in the back, causing her to fall.
The woman said, “As soon as [Murayama] fell, she grabbed the rope of the suspension bridge. I reached out to pull her up, but she fell into the river. I heard a loud noise as she fell into the river. [Defendant Uchida] said, ‘Let’s go,’ and I had no choice but to follow her. She told me not to talk about it.”
The defense argues that the woman “had an inescapable relationship” with Uchida. “There have been some reports that I deny the charges, so I held this press conference to deny them. The trial will be a mitigating defense,” she said.
A letter from the woman to her defense was also made public. She wrote that she committed a crime so serious that she could never atone for it. She said, “If I had stopped [Uchida], the victim might have been living a normal life by now. But I ended up causing her death. If I could go back in time, I would want to help the victim even at the cost of my own life. I want to go back to that time many times.”
The first hearing is scheduled for February 27, 2025. The verdict is scheduled to be handed down on March 7. The trial will be by lay judges. Uchida’s trial will be separate. No date has been set.