TOKYO (TR) – A 23-year-old woman in custody for allegedly burying the body of her newborn at a park in Minato Ward last year has admitted to killing the child, police have revealed, reports Jiji Press (Nov. 3).
Sayuri Kitai, a clothing salesperson, has told police that she strangled the infant — later found to be a girl — on the night of November 3, 2019.
“After I gave birth inside a toilet in Haneda Airport, I stuffed tissue paper in her mouth after she wouldn’t stop crying,” Kitai said.
On Sunday, police accused Kitai of burying the body of the infant at Italy Park in the Higashi Shimbashi area.
Police are planning to further accuse Kitai of murder.
“Having a baby is not a dream of mine”
Kitai lives in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, where she was arrested. She was then transported to the Atago Police Station in Tokyo.
According to police, she arrived at the airport on a flight from Kobe on the night of November 3, 2019.
Based on security camera footage taken at the airport, she was inside one of the toilets for about 40 minutes. After staying one night at a hotel attached to the airport, she departed the next day.
“Having a baby is not a dream of mine,” she also told police, according to Fuji News Network (Nov. 3).
Traveled on the Tokyo Monorail
On the morning of November 8, officers working off a tip from a passerby found the body of the girl on the south side of Italy Park in Shimbashi.
The umbilical cord was attached. The gender of the infant was not known at the time. The results of an autopsy revealed that she died due to suffocation, police said previously.
Kitai emerged as a person of interest in the case after police viewed about 29,000 persons who appeared in security camera footage shot in the area.
Kitai came to the capital to look for a job. Police believe she gave birth at the airport and traveled to the park on the Tokyo Monorail before burying the body.
At the time of the incident, Kitai was a fourth-year university student. Her pregnancy had been registered with a government office. She was scheduled to give birth in December.
