SAITAMA (TR) – During the opening of the trial last week for a man charged with murdering a woman with her consent, it was learned that the defendant has also been accused of killing a second woman.
The prosecution argued that the murders of nine people in Zama City, Kanagawa Prefecture in 2017 was the impetus for the crimes, reports Nippon News Network (Mar. 18).
At the Saitama District Court on March 18, Jun Saito, 31, admitted to drugging and strangling the first woman, 21, with her consent at his residence in 2018. He also admitted to murdering the second woman, 22, with her consent three years before.
The prosecution began by discussing the circumstances leading to the crimes in their opening statement. The prosecution stated, “Saito had a desire to kill people since elementary school, and believed that he could kill suicidal individuals without resistance, so he began searching for them on internet message boards.”
In 2015, he visited the home of the 22-year-old woman with whom he had been exchanging messages. There, he allegedly made her write a suicide note and gave her sleeping pills. He waited for her to fall asleep and then killed her, making it look like a suicide.
“Inspired by the Zama City incident”
Two days later, Saito returned to her home to confirm her death, but fled when her family noticed him.
The prosecution points out that because Saito was unable to confirm the woman’s death in the first case, he wanted to make sure that didn’t happen a second time.
The prosecution continued, “After seeing the news about the murders of nine people in Zama City, Kanagawa Prefecture [in 2017], he came up with the idea of killing someone at home and dismembering the body.”
The defendant admitted that he was inspired after learning about the Zama case, in which former death row inmate Takahiro Shiraishi murdered and dismembered nine people.
Human Remains Found at in Saito’s Home
In 2018, he obtained the consent the 21-year-old woman to be murdered and dismembered. He then instructed her to reset her cell phone to avoid leaving any evidence of their communication.
After preparing a knife and deodorant, he allegedly strangled her with a rope at his home and dismembered her body.
The victim’s skull was found in a storage cabinet at Saito’s home. Other human remains were found in a plastic container in the refrigerator.
“I can never forgive”
At the trial on March 18, a statement from the father of the 22-year-old woman was read aloud. “My wife told me that my daughter had contacted her saying, ‘I’m not going to die, I’m going to be murdered.’ I can never forgive the perpetrator,” he wrote.
The next hearing is scheduled for March 27.
