OSAKA (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police are in investigating what is believed to have been a family suicide following the discovery of three bodies in a residence in Hirakata City on Wednesday night, reports the Sankei Shimbun (May 17).
At around 9:00 p.m., police received a distress call from a man who said that members of his family were committing suicide. Police arriving at the residence, located in the Miyanoshitacho area, found the bodies a 60-year-old male office worker, his wife, 55, and son, 25, collapsed in the living room.
According to police, two braziers with burned charcoal briquettes were found in the room, which had been sealed shut with tape. Though the cause of death of the persons is under investigation, police suspect that they committed suicide with the charcoal.
The man who made the call is the eldest son of the couple. He had received word that a suicide plot was under way.