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Man suspected of killing ex-girlfriend sent ‘farewell’ text to friend before fatal leap in front of train

Tsukine Kawamura (Twitter)

AICHI (TR) – A man who police suspect fatally stabbed his former girlfriend on a railway platform in Nagoya earlier this month texted his friend before taking a fatal leap in front of an oncoming train.

“I am sorry,” Takuya Minami wrote at 7:44 p.m. on April 8, reports CBC TV (April 11). “This is farewell.”

The message would prove to be the conclusion of sad tale seemingly fueled by out-of-control paranoia and jealousy.

Six minutes after the message was sent, police received a report about a man who “leaped in front of a train” at Moto-Kasadera Station on the Meitetsu Nagoya Main Line in Minami Ward.

Police and fire personnel arriving at the scene found Minami, 29, collapsed on a platform at the station with severe injuries over his entire body. He was later confirmed dead.

On the same platform, authorities found his former girlfriend, 18-year-old Tsukine Kawamura, collapsed inside a waiting area with a knife protruding from her chest. Kawamura, who had suffered three stab wounds to the chest, died at a hospital about two and a half hours later.

A witness saw Takuya Minami and Tsukine Kawamura seated in a waiting area at Moto-Kasadera Station on April 8 (Twitter)

“I no longer have the will to live”

The aforementioned acquaintance also knew Kawamura, who was an office worker living in Nakagawa Ward. According to the acquaintance, Minami and Kawamura broke up three days before the incident.

Minami thought Kawamura was in a relationship with a male colleague. “If you can promise that you won’t cheat on me, I won’t say anything, and I’ll try not to use violence or anything like that,” Minami wrote to Kawamura around the time of the breakup.

The reason for the separation was the “violence” alluded to by Minami, according to the acquaintance. A neighbor of Minami tells TV Tokai (April 11), “At 3:00 a.m. [one time], I heard what sounded like a man screaming, and, in response, I heard aw what appeared to be a woman’s voice shouting, ‘Stop!’ So, I thought he might be the type with a temper.”

A sense of paranoia seemed to consume Minami, causing him to want to control Kawamura while they were together. In addition to installing an app on her phone that allowed him to monitor her location, he also prohibited her seeing her female friends.

“My boyfriend restricted me from playing with my girlfriends,” she wrote on social media. “But I broke up with him, so let’s have a good time.”

Minami’s paranoia seemed to only build following the end of the relationship. The aforementioned acquaintance estimates that Minami sent about 1,000 messages over a two-day period leading up to the incident. At one point, Minami wrote, “I no longer have the will to live.” He also mentioned “betrayal” and a desire “to kill.”

The day before the incident, he wrote to the acquaintance, “I bought a knife for around 20,000 yen.”

Takuya Minami (Twitter)

“I don’t want you to look over here”

According to investigative sources, a witness saw Kawamura and Minami in the waiting room together just before the incident on April 8. “I don’t want you to look over here,” Minami told the witness.

About 15 minutes before the discovery of Kawamura collapsed in the room, police received a distress call from the vicinity of Moto-Kasadera Station. The female caller only sobbed before hanging up. After that, she failed to pick up when police attempted to return the call.

When police arrived at the waiting room, a jacket was covering Kawamura, apparently to conceal the knife protruding from her body. There were signs of defensive wounds, according to police. In addition, a second knife was found at the scene.

In the time leading up to the incident, Kawamura sensed trouble, expressing her concerns on what is believed to be her Twitter account.

“I’m happy and comfortable with my life now that we’ve broken up,” she wrote on the day of the incident, “and I really wish you wouldn’t stalk me near my office. Don’t you know how scared I am every day?”