FUKUSHIMA (TR) – With his jacket pulled over his head to hide his face, 82-year-old Takumi Inoue was taken into police custody following a domestic homicide.
Police in Fukushima City arrested Inoue on suspicion of murdering his 76-year-old wife, Etsuko, as she slept, seemingly driven to the breaking point by the burdens of in-home caregiving, reports Nippon News Network (May 11).
The fatal assault occurred at around 4:00 a.m. on Sunday. According to investigative sources, Inoue attacked his sleeping wife from the front, bludgeoning her in the head with a blunt object before strangling her to death with his bare hands.
Approximately two hours later, at 6:00 a.m., Inoue dialed police and made a confession to the emergency dispatcher: “I killed my wife.”
Police immediately responded to the couple’s home, located in a normally quiet residential neighborhood that was soon wrapped in police tape.
Upon questioning, Inoue admitted to the allegations.
The elderly couple lived alone. Acquaintances of the pair revealed that Inoue had been severely struggling with his daily burdens.
“He said caregiving was tough. He had been looking after her for decades,” one person who knew the couple told reporters. In the time leading up to the incident, Inoue was reportedly heard complaining to those around him, “Caregiving is so hard. I’m exhausted.”
Police believe the murder is an outcome of “caregiver fatigue” and are continuing to investigate the exact circumstances that led the octogenarian to end his wife’s life.
