KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police plan to re-arrest one of two suspects in the murder of an elderly woman whose body was found her residence in Hiratsuka City last year over a separate robbery case, reports NHK (Feb. 4).
Yoshiki Saito, 23-year-old resident of Tokyo’s Ota Ward, and Kaede Kawashima, a 22-year-old resident of Nara Prefecture, have been accused of trespassing into the residence of Hiroko Toriumi, 80, and strangling her to death.
Police have also accused the suspects, who are believed to have met on an underground internet site, of stealing a fare card for a transportation network that belonged to the woman.
The body of Toriumi was found atop a bed on the first floor of her residence by a relative on February 22, 2017. The results of an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be suffocation due to pressure applied around the neck.
In the latest development, Saito is believed to have acted alone in a separate robbery about 10 days before. On Monday, police plan to accuse him of robbery resulting in injury. On February 11, 2017, he is believed to have broken into another residence in Hiratsuka and injured a man while stealing a bank card.
