TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 24-year-old woman for allegedly dumping the body of her newborn infant in a closet of a share house in Toshima Ward, reports TBS News (Jan. 22).
Early on Sunday, several male and female residents of the house, located in the Highashi Ikebukuro area, tipped off police about a foul smell coming from the closet and “a blood-stained plastic bag on the balcony.”
Officers arriving at the residence found the corpse of the child, believed to be a girl, wrapped in a towel and inside a plastic bag placed in the closet.
Officers later arrested Yumi Jitsuhara, a part-time employee, on suspicion of abandoning a corpse. “I gave birth in my room last December, but I did not have confidence to raise [the child],” the suspect was quoted by police in admitting to the allegations. “I also do not know who the father is.”
Jitsuhara also said that the child was alive upon the birth. Police are now attempting to determine the cause of death.
