KUMAMOTO (TR) – A 51-year-old man stabbed himself with a knife inside his parked car in Kumamoto City in early July, just before the discovery of the corpse a former colleague in the backseat, police have revealed.
It took Keiji Sonomura, a retailing employee, roughly one month to recover at a hospital from his injuries, reports Jiji Press (July 30).
Upon his arrest on suspicion of murdering Satomi Kawabe, 58, on Tuesday, he partially denied the allegations. “It’s true that I strangled her with my hands and arms, but I didn’t intend to kill her.”
Police believe that Sonomura strangled Kawabe in Yamaga City on July 1. That night, police received a call from her family in which the caller said that Kawabe had “not come home.”
On the afternoon of the following day, officers from the Yamaga Police Station discovered Sonomura’s vehicle parked with the engine running on the grounds of a materials storage yard in Kita Ward of Kumamoto City.
When officers attempted to question Sonomura, who was in the driver’s seat, he stabbed himself in the stomach with a kitchen knife he was carrying. Kawabe’s body was then found slumped in the backseat.
The cause of death was later determined to have been asphyxiation, police said.
Sonomura and Kawabe were colleagues at a previous workplace, and Kawabe had reportedly consulted other colleagues and friends. “Sonomura is showing me unrequited affection and it’s bothering me,” she said.
However, Kawabe did not consult with prefectural police about stalking by Sonomura.
