Former Colleagues Speak Out After Adult Worker Arrested in Infant Mutilation Case

“When I realized it, the baby had already discolored”
“I just wanted to keep the child I gave birth to close to me”

The case involves the discovery of a dismembered infant in a waiting area of a dispatch-style sex work establishment in Kinshicho, Sumida Ward, Tokyo. On December 18, Reo Obara (22) was arrested on suspicion of mutilating and abandoning a corpse. She reportedly explained her motive in these terms.

The incident came to light around 9 p.m. on December 6, when staff cleaning the refrigerator in the waiting area found what appeared to be the infant’s head in a plastic bag in the upper freezer compartment. Additional body parts were later found in a plastic container.

“It was later confirmed that the remains were those of a newborn girl. DNA testing verified that Obara was the mother, and fingerprints on the bag matched hers, leading to her arrest. She worked at the sex work establishment where the crime occurred,” a reporter from a major newspaper’s social affairs desk said.

During police questioning after her arrest, Obara reportedly said: “When I gave birth, she didn’t cry or move. I thought I had to hide her, so I dismembered her.” The circumstances of the crime are shocking.

According to her statements, Obara gave birth alone in the waiting room around March of this year. “The baby didn’t cry or move. I lost consciousness at the scene, and when I came to, the baby had already discolored,” she said. She then moved to a nearby hotel, dismembered the body with a box cutter, discarded the torso in the waiting room trash, and stored the remaining parts in the freezer compartment.

The author interviewed a former employee, A-san, who worked at the same establishment as Obara and left the job after the incident. She revealed details about the waiting room where the body was abandoned.

“The waiting room was on the second floor of a multi-tenant building near Kinshicho Station. At the top of the stairs was a door that was never locked, open 24 hours. Inside were five curtained seats along each wall, making ten in total. With the curtains closed, no one could see inside, so the birth was probably done quietly.”

“There were two security cameras, but they were monitoring the safe in the store. The rest of the room was mostly out of view. Between the seats along the walls was a walkway leading to the back, where the white single-person refrigerator containing the remains was found.”

The rampant full-service acts

More than eight months passed between the birth and the discovery of the infant’s body in the refrigerator. There is a reason why the body went unnoticed for so long.

“The office for the store was located elsewhere, and until November this year, there was no staff stationed in the waiting area. They only came occasionally for light cleaning. The refrigerator was always packed with abandoned drinks and other items. The freezer section was also filled with ice cream and frozen foods, leaving no space to put anything else.”

“Still, throwing away someone else’s belongings could cause trouble, so I never used that refrigerator. Those who did use it never touched anything that wasn’t theirs. That’s probably why it took so long to find the body. I never imagined there would be an infant in there—it’s terrifying”, said the former employee, A-san.

A-san had noticed suspicious behavior from Obara.

“Since no male staff were stationed there, some girls would use the waiting area like a hotel when they weren’t on shift. From early spring for several months, the seat at the very back on the right side was always occupied. The curtain was always closed. It was the closest spot to the refrigerator. I assumed someone had claimed it as their spot.”

“I even saw the girl come out of that seat. Conversation between girls was prohibited at the store, and of course, I didn’t know her real name, but when I saw the suspect’s profile on TV, I thought, ‘That’s her!’”

A-san pointed out a photo of Obara from the list of store employees posted on adult work information websites. When her pseudonym was searched on adult forums, multiple posts appeared from male clients claiming to have engaged in full-service acts with her.

According to reports, Obara began working at the store in November of last year, by which time she was already pregnant. The identity of the father remains unknown.

Of course, full-service acts are prohibited both by law and by store rules, but many sex workers secretly engage in them to increase their income. It is possible that while making a living this way, Obara became pregnant against her will.

Her expressed desire to keep the baby close contrasts starkly with the act of discarding the torso as trash, revealing a disturbing contradiction. Yet, considering that she carried, gave birth to, and disposed of the child alone in the waiting area of the sex work establishment, one cannot help but feel the helplessness of society in the face of such circumstances.