TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropoltan Police have arrested a 46-year-old man who is alleged to have attempted to kill a teenage girl after she requested that he do so online, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (Mar. 6).
On January 31 and the following day, Akio Suto, of no known occupation, forced the girl, 19, to consume a drink laced with a sleeping powder and choked her around the neck at his residence in Katsushika Ward.
At some point, the girl backed out of the plan. “I want to go home,” she said. “I want to live.”
Suto released her on the morning of February 2. The girl, who was not hurt in the incident, later visited a koban police box in Sumida Ward.
According to police, Suto also lit charcoal briquettes inside his residence in an attempt to kill himself by inhaling carbon monoxide fumes.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of attemping to carry out a contract murder on Saturday, Suto admitted to the allegations. “I was going to commit suicide because I didn’t want to cause trouble for my family after killing the girl,” the suspect said.
Suto met the girl via Twitter earlier in January. “I want to die,” she wrote. “How about taking a sleeping powder and letting me strangle you?” the suspect wrote back.
The suspect met the girl in Adachi Ward on January 31. They then traveled inside his car to his residence.
The arrest is the second in the case for Suto. On February 13, police accused him of abducting the girl for the purpose of assault.
