TOCHIGI (TR) – Tochigi Prefectural Police have arrested a 42-year-old man for allegedly leaving the body of his father at the residence they share in Oyama City for a roughly three-week period, reports TBS News (May 28).
At just past 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, Akinori Takanohashi tipped off emergency services, saying that his father had “stopped breathing and unconscious.”
Police and fire officials arriving at the residence, located in the Ekiminamicho area, found 69-year-old Kiichi dead inside a second-floor room.
Officers from the Oyama Police Station subsequently arrested Takanohashi after it was learned that his father died sometime around the Golden Week holiday, which extends over the end of April and early May.
“Even with the offensive smell, I could not accept that he died,” said the suspect, who has been accused of abandoning a corpse. “Since I was scared, I left him as is.”
Police are now discussing the circumstances of the case with the suspect’s mother, who also lives in the residence.