IBARAKI (TR) – Chiba Prefectural Police have applied fresh charges of murder to a 36-year-old man and his mother who are both already in custody over the burial of the body of his wife at their family residence earlier this year, reports TBS News (Aug. 7).
Last month, officers found part of a decayed corpse on the premises of the residence in Toride City, Ibaraki Prefecture. The body was later confirmed as belonging to 30-year-old Maiko Yatani. Police subsequently accused Maiko’s husband, Takahito, and his mother, 63-year-old Emi, of abandoning a corpse.
In the latest development, police have accused Takahito and his mother of working together in fatally strangling Maiko inside his vehicle in a parking lot in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture in March.
Takahito admits to the allegations. However, his mother denies the allegations. “I never thought Takahito would do it,” she was quoted by police.
Takahito and Maiko lived in Kashiwa. During voluntary questioning prior to his arrest on suspicion of abandoning a corpse in July, Takahito, who is a former employee at a bank, admitted to burying his wife’s body on the property in Toride, where his mother resides. Officers then found the body in a part of the garden the following day.
Earlier this month, police revealed that Takahito admitted to working with his mother in digging the hole to bury the body of his wife on the property two days before killing her.