TOTTORI (TR) – A court here last week sentenced 34-year-old man to 18 years in prison over the murder of his pregnant girlfriend eight years ago, reports Kyodo News (Sept. 13).
At the Tottori District Court on September 13, presiding judge Mika Araki described the actions of Fumiaki Murakami, who formerly used the surname Araki, as “egotistic.”
On around July 15, 2011, Murakami used a nylon rope to fatally strangle Miho Onishi, 28, on the roof of the office of a gasoline station in Sakaiminato City. Her body was found on the roof the next day.
“I killed her on the roof,” Murakami was quoted by police upon his arrest earlier this year.
Another woman
Police later learned that Murakami married another woman with whom he was engaged in a relationship about two weeks after killing Onishi.
Police also said that a rope found at the scene had been tied into the shape of a noose and attached to an iron rod. It was speculated that the defendant wanted it to appear that Onishi hanged herself.
Onishi was a resident of Niimi City, Okayama Prefecture. Her family reported her missing in January, 2014. The following September, police confirmed that the corpse found on the roof of the station was that of Onishi.
The prosecution had sought a 20-year prison term. “You may have denoted that you are reflecting [upon your actions], but you weren’t arrested until seven years after [committing the crime],” the judge said.
Murakami’s defense team is planning to appeal the ruling.
