A 25-year-old man stabbed his mother-in-law to death with multiple knives.
My mother has been stabbed.
It was noon on January 17 when a distraught woman called 110. When the police officers rushed to the scene, they found a horrific sight: ……. A woman was lying in the yard of a private house, covered in so much blood that it was impossible to see where she had been stabbed.
Tomoko Kotani, 57, an unemployed woman, was stabbed to death in her home in Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture. On the morning of January 17, Ms. Kotani went out with her eldest daughter and newborn grandchild in her car to do some shopping. When she returned home, she was stabbed by a man who was present.
After killing Ms. Kotani, the man immediately fled the scene. About six and a half hours later, while walking on the street in Kasama City, he was questioned and taken into custody. The suspect, Daichi Kodama (25), a company employee, who is Ms. Kotani’s son-in-law and the husband of her eldest daughter, was arrested. The suspect, Daichi Kodama, 25, a company employee, admitted to the murder, saying, “There is no doubt about it.
Ms. Kotani had been stabbed in the neck and other parts of her upper body. When he was found, he already had no pulse. Employees of a nearby factory, who heard shouting and a car horn in front of the entrance, gave him cardiac massage, but he was unconscious. A number of knives were found at the scene,” said a reporter from a national newspaper.
The eldest daughter who had returned to her parents’ house
Ms. Kotani’s home is located in a residential area about 150 meters southwest of Shishido Station on the JR Mito Line. The neighborhood was filled with police cars and dogs, and the atmosphere was somber.
According to neighbors and relatives, Ms. Kotani lived with her husband and her husband’s father. According to neighbors and relatives, Ms. Kotani lived with her husband and her husband’s father. She had a cheerful and calm personality and did not seem like a woman who would cause problems.
However, Kodama made a statement to the police that she had problems with both Kotani and her eldest daughter. The fact that his eldest daughter and grandchildren had left Kodama’s house in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, for a while and returned to their parents’ house for some reason may have something to do with the incident.
What was the background to the crime? Yasuhei Ogawa, a former detective of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police and a crime journalist, tells us.
The fact that he stabbed her to death with multiple knives shows tremendous murderous intent. It was not a spur-of-the-moment incident, but a premeditated crime. In such cases, financial problems and heterosexual problems are likely. The suspect may have been strongly denied his marriage by Ms. Kotani, or he may have been exposed to a fact he wanted to keep hidden. Either way, this is a crime that should not be tolerated.
She got into trouble with Ms. Kotani and her eldest daughter and resented them. From behind the incident, Kodama’s selfish and dark thoughts emerged.
Photography: Shinji Hasuo