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Niigata: Woman, 53, arrested after decayed corpse of mother found

NIIGATA (TR) – Niigata Prefectural Police have arrested a 53-year-old woman whose whereabouts were unknown following the discovery of the decayed corpse of her mother at their residence in Niigata City earlier this month, reports Fuji News Network (Jan. 20).

On Sunday, police located Naomi Fukube, of no known occupation, at an unspecified location in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture.

That same day, Naomi was transferred to the Niigata-Higashi Police Station. Upon her arrest on suspicion of abandoning a corpse, she admitted to the allegations, police said.

Naomi Fukube (Twitter)

Naomi shared the residence in the Gakkochodori area of Niigata City with her mother, 77-year-old Junko.

At around 2:00 p.m. on January 6, a relative tipped off police about “what appears to be a body” inside.

Officers arriving at the scene found Junko’s heavily decayed corpse stretched out on the floor of the kitchen.

She is believed to have died up to one year before the discovery, police said previously. Police later placed Naomi on a nationwide wanted list.

Contradicting a previous report, Junko’s body was found to have a knife wound to the back. The cause of death was loss of blood due to the wound, police said, according to Jiji Press (Jan. 19).

Police are now continuing the investigation on suspicion of murder.