OSAKA (TR) – Following the discovery of the corpse of a 78-year-old woman in the bathroom of her home in Sakai City last month, police have revealed that the case is being a treated as murder, reports TV Asahi (Feb. 5).
On the morning of January 30, the son of Keiko Kinoshita, who lived alone in the home in Nishi Ward, found her dead in the bathroom.
Kinoshita was found naked in the bathtub, which was full of water, at the time of the discovery. The results of an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be drowning. Both of her arms and neck were fractured, police said.
The injuries to her arms are believed to have been sustained while she was defending herself.
There were several other injuries on Kinoshita’s body that appear to have been sustained before she died.
The home, a two-story structure, is located in a quiet residential area about 1 kilometer west of JR Tsukuno Station.
Police are aware of no past incidents involving Kinoshita. As well, there is no evidence to suggest that a knife or other weapon was used in the crime.
“Especially the neck bones, they don’t break without a great deal of force,” Seizo Sasaki, a former Saitama Prefectural Police detective, tells the network. “Police are assessing the extent of the force required to break them, and that’s the main reason they’re investigating it as a murder case.”
