SHIZUOKA (TR) – A man and a woman in custody over the theft of a bank card of an elderly woman were arrested again on Thursday for allegedly abandoning her body in Hamamatsu City, police have revealed, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Sept. 25).
In the latest development, police allege that Masaya Morishita, 47, and Kanami Koide, 49, buried the body of Hisayo Takahashi, 83, in a mountainous area of Tenryu Ward around February 2018.
Police did not reveal whether the suspects admit to the allegations.
In April, police first arrested the suspects, both of no known occupation, as a part of a fraud investigation. At the time, they were in possession of bank cards belonging to Takahashi and her son.
Police later arrested the pair for allegedly using the card belonging to the son to withdraw a total of 600,000 yen from his account between July of last year and April.
Takahashi was an acquaintance of the suspects. By this time, her whereabouts were unknown. Meanwhile, her son had already died through unspecified means, according to NHK (Sept. 24).
“I just procured a shovel”
This month, police further accused the suspects of using the card of Takahashi to withdraw a total of 4 million yen from her account.
During the latter crime, Takahashi was still receiving pension payments. Police suspect that the suspects targeted those payments.
During questioning, Morishita divulged the location of Takahashi’s body. Police found the corpse on August 6. The body showed no signs of external wounds.
“The abandoning of the body was requested by Koide and her son before his death,” Morishita told police. “The body was placed in her son’s car. As for me, I just found the place [to dump it] and procured a shovel.”
Police are continuing the investigation.
