IWATE (TR) – Iwate Prefectural Police have arrested a teenage boy for allegedly assisting a woman take her own life by leaping from a cliff in the village of Tanohata, reports Jiji Press (June 6).
On the morning of June 5, officers responding to a tip about a “suspicious vehicle parked” near Unosu Cliff, a popular sightseeing location, found the corpse of the woman, a bar employee aged in her 30s, in the sea below.
Officers also found the boy, 19, beyond the barrier for the observation deck for the cliff. With him on the verge of losing consciousness, he was transported to a hospital in nearby Miyako City.
According to police, the woman met the boy, a resident of Yokote City, Akita Prefecture, on the internet. The woman, who is from Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture, drove the vehicle to the observation deck.
She is believed to have leaped from the observation deck, which stands about 200 meters above the water, sometime between 7:50 p.m. on June 4 and 11:30 a.m. the next day.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of assisting the woman take her life by accompanying her to the location, the boy partially denied the allegations. “While I was asleep she vanished,” he said.
Police plan to further question the boy once he is released from the hospital.
