HOKKAIDO (TR) – Police have arrested a 49-year-old woman who fled across the country after allegedly stealing cash from her deceased brother’s bank account, just days before his body was discovered in the basement of their Otaru City home, reports Nippon News Network (Oct. 13).
Masumi Ishiba is accused of using the cash card of her 52-year-old brother, Tetsuya, to withdraw 200,000 yen from an ATM in Otaru on October 4.
Three days later, a grim discovery was made at the residence they shared. Following an emergency call from an associate of the siblings’ father who reported being unable to contact the family, police searched the Otaru home and found Tetsuya’s remains concealed in a basement storage room.
Investigators believe Tetsuya had been dead for several months. His cause of death remains unknown.
By the time the body was found, Masumi had vanished. Police tracked the suspect down on October 11, apprehending her near Sakado Station in Saitama Prefecture — more than 800 kilometers away from the crime scene.
Upon her arrest for suspected theft, Masumi admitted to draining the funds, telling investigators, “It is what I did, so I have no excuse.”
Prior to the incident, the suspect lived at the Otaru residence with her brother and their father. Neighbors expressed shock at the situation, noting that the father had recently been hospitalized.
“The father and daughter got along very well,” one local resident said. “With the father hospitalized and the son found in that condition, we were always wondering what happened to the daughter.”
Police are now continuing their investigation to determine if Masumi was involved in the abandonment of her brother’s corpse or his death.
