5-Year-Old Boy Buried and Abandoned Under The Floor of 3 Adults — One of Them is His Mother!
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The three of us dug a hole and buried them. “
Based on the suspects’ statements, the police searched the two-story wooden house they lived in, and found the body of a boy lying on his back under the floor of a Japanese-style room on the first floor.
On March 5, Saitama Prefectural Police arrested three suspects, Chika Kakimoto (30), a temporary worker in Honjo City, Hiroki Niwa (34), an unemployed person, and Yoko Ishii (54), an unemployed person, on suspicion of abandoning a corpse. The three suspects have confessed to the crime, saying “We did it.”
The Niwa and Ishii suspects originally lived in the house where the body was found. The suspect Kakimoto, a single mother, began moving in with them in April of last year together with the boy.
There had always been a suspicions of abuse. Last September, a restaurant in the city contacted City Hall. The man scolded the boy severely every time he came to the restaurant. He is not given any food and sits on his knees. The city hall staff interviewed the suspect, Kakimoto. She explained,’He doesn’t listen to me, so the man she lives with takes care of him. “The city hall staff determined that there were no signs of abuse because there were no bruises or other flaws on the boy’s body, “said a reporter from the society section of a national newspaper.
He is living well in Osaka.
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Even earlier this year, there were strange occurrences. On January 20, eight days later, Kakimoto submitted a notice of withdrawal from the day-care center, explaining that he was “living well in Izumi City, Osaka Prefecture, where my parents live. “
However, when Honjo City made an inquiry to Izumi City, it was discovered in March that he had not moved to Izumi City. Honjo City consulted the police, saying,’We can’t confirm the safety of the child. When we asked the three people who lived together about the situation, they admitted that they had dumped the bodies in mid-January.
Although the case will gradually become clearer with further investigation, there are many unknowns in the case. Why did the Kakimoto suspects begin living together with Niwa and the others, and what is the relationship between the three? Why did the boy die? Was it necessary to bury the body? ……
Former Kanagawa Prefectural Police detective and crime journalist Taihei Ogawa explains.
The three suspects must have been acquainted with either Niwa or Ishii, and they might have been abusing the boy. No one objected to not feeding him when they went to a restaurant, and the statement that’the three of us buried them together’ suggests this.
For a five-year-old child, being cold-shouldered and reprimanded by three adults is nothing but fear. He could not have thought of escaping. It is likely that the child was not able to eat well and either died of malnutrition or was beaten to death. The body were buried in the ground, probably because the three were afraid that the crime would be discovered.
Based on the results of the autopsy, the police are investigating the details of how the boy disappeared.
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Photographed by: Shinji Hasuo