OSAKA (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police have arrested a 24-year-old man who confined his 1-year-old daughter, who later died, in a closet in their residence in Osaka City’s Kita Ward, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (Mar. 11).
At around 11:30 p.m. on Friday, taxi driver Ryoma Konishi allegedly wrapped his second daughter, Maria, in a blanket and placed her in the closet in the residence, located in the Oyodonaka area.
At about 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, Maria was found to not be breathing. The girl was later confirmed dead at a hospital. The results of an autopsy revealed that the girl died due to suffocation, the Oyodo Police Station said.
Konishi, who has been accused of neglecting his responsibility as a guardian, denies the allegations, saying that he did not intend to abandon the girl. “Because she was noisy I only wrapped her in a blanket,” the suspect was quoted by police.
At the time of the incident, the suspect’s wife, 26, was outside the residence due to work. The couple’s eldest daughter, 2, was sleeping.
A neighbor tells Nippon News Network (Mar. 11) that the sounds a crying child could be heard coming from the residence each night.
