HOKKAIDO (TR) – Hokkaido Prefectural Police are investigating what is believed to have to been a murder suicide after a 37-year-old woman and her two daughters died after being found in a car in Kitami City last week, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 8).
At around 9:45 a.m. on February 8, the fire department received a tip about “three persons who seem unconscious” in the vehicle, parked in the Kita area.
The woman and the children, aged four and six, were later confirmed dead at a hospital, police said.
About one year ago, the woman consulted with police after she got into a fight with her husband. As well, police found burned charcoal briquettes inside the vehicle.
Police believe that the woman took her life and those of her children through the inhalation of carbon monoxide fumes released by the briquettes.
