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Thai woman suspected in murder of children says ‘custody dispute’ preceded incident

TOKYO (TR) – A Thai woman in custody over the alleged killing of both of her children at a residence in Musashino City has told police that she committed the crime during a “custody dispute,” reports TV Asahi (Mar. 24).

At just past 11:00 a.m. on Monday, Rudeeporn Furukawa, 41, visited a koban (police box) to report, “I killed my children.”

Officers rushing to the residence, located about 200 meters from JR Kichijoji Station, found the bodies of her son, a 13-year-old middle school student, in a bedroom and her girl, a 10-year-old elementary school student, in the living room.

Tokyo police found the bodies of two children at a residence in Kichijoji on Monday (Twitter)

The results of autopsies conducted on the bodies revealed that the children died as a result of stab wounds to the shoulder and neck. A blood-stained knife was also found inside the residence.

Furukawa lives separately from her husband. After police took her in for voluntary questioning, she was accused of murder. “I killed them while they slept,” she told police in admitting to the allegations.

In explaining a motive, Furukawa said, “If [my husband] is able to take the children via a custody dispute, I thought I would kill them.”

At the time she visited the police box, the woman was with her husband’s mother. She added that she carried out the crime at 7:30 a.m.

NHK (Mar. 24) reported that her husband’s family discussed how a divorce could proceed two days before the incident.