TOKYO (TR) – A woman in custody on suspicion of murdering her parents in April has been further accused of damaging their bodies, police have revealed.
The charred bodies of Ryutaro Takarajima, 55, and his wife, 56-year-old Sachiko, were found on a riverbank in the town of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture on April 16.
On Thursday, Tokyo and Tochigi police accused Manami Takarajima, the 31-year-old daughter of the victims, of abandoning and destroying their bodies, reports Nippon News Network (July 18).
Police had already arrested Manami, Seiha Sekine, her 32-year-old common-law husband, and five others on suspicion of murder.
According to previous reports, police believe the group conspired to murder Manami’s parents at a residence in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo by strangling them on around April 15 and the following morning.
Restaurants in Ueno
The victims operated more than 10 restaurants in the Ueno area of Tokyo’s Taito Ward. Sekine has managed at least three of the businesses on their behalf.
According to investigative sources, Sekine was the mastermind behind the murders. Ryo Maeda, 36, is the real estate agent who managed the vacant house in Shinagawa where the crime took place.
Hikaru Sasaki, 28, was asked by Sekine to carry out the plan. Ryoken Hirayama, 25, acted as an intermediary and provided the car used in the crime.
After Maeda drove the couple from Ueno to the vacant home in Shinagawa on the evening of April 15, they came into contact with Kang Gwang-gi, 20, and Kirato Wakayama, a 20-year-old former child actor.
At some point during the journey to the residence, the couple was induced to consume a drink laced with sleeping pills. Hirayama, Maeda, Kang and Wakayama then allegedly murdered the couple by strangling them with an electrical cord in the garage.
On the morning of April 16, the burned bodies of the couple were found on the Nasu riverbank with their hands bound and their heads wrapped in plastic bags and adhesive tape. They were lying on their backs in an “X” shape.
Police believe the bodies of the couple were set ablaze with gasoline after the murders.
“I might have been involved”
On the morning of April 17, Hirayama turned himself in to the Osaki Police Station, located near the residence in Shinagawa. “I might have been involved in the incident,” he told police at the time.
That same month, police arrested Hirayama and Sasaki on suspicion of destruction of a corpse. Kang and Wakayama were accused of the same crime the following month. Arrests of Maeda and Sekine later followed.
Manami’s father was the chairman of a restaurant management company. She was a director. In January, Sekine got into a dispute with the couple over the management of the company.
Manami, who sided with Sekine in the dispute, resigned from her post that same month. However, she became chairman in May, one month after the deaths of her parents.
On June 27, police accused Manami of murder after analyzing data on her smartphone that showed exchanges with Sekine. Police believe that she was not acquainted with the four who carried out the crime in the garage of the residence.
During voluntary questioning, Manami revealed to police that Sekine and her parents had engaged in the dispute.
