TOKYO (TR) – Following the discovery of five corpses in a residence in Edogawa Ward on Friday, Tokyo Metropolitan Police are viewing the case as a group suicide orchestrated via Twitter, reports Nippon News Network (July 14).
At around 9:00 p.m., officers entered the residence, located in the Nishiichinoe area, and found the bodies of three women and two men in a room on the second floor. None of the bodies had external wounds.
With five burned charcoal briquettes found in frying pans and the windows sealed with weather stripping, police suspect the five persons died due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
One of the bodies is believed to be that of a 37-year-old man who lives in the residence. He is suspected of soliciting participants in the suspected group suicide by posting messages on Twitter using the hashtag #自殺 (suicide), police said.
Just before the discovery, a female acquaintance of the man contacted the Misaki Police Station in Kanagawa Prefecture to report that he had hinted at assembling persons for a group suicide via the social-networking service. Officers from the Komatsugawa Police Station then entered the premises and made the grisly discovery.
Police are still seeking to confirm the identities of all of the bodies.
