Police in Osaka have arrested an 81-year-old woman on suspicion of killing her 85-year-old husband by strangling him with a power cord at the nursing home where they both lived.
Police said Takako Yamada told them she was tired of caring for her husband who suffered from a chronic illness, Kyodo News reported.
According to police, Yamada strangled her husband Katsutoshi between 12 noon and 1 p.m. on Friday in their room at the nursing home in Nishinari Ward. She then tried to commit suicide by wrapping the cord around her own neck, but pressed the call button and a staff member of the facility came to their room.
Katsutoshi was unconscious and taken to hospital where he was later confirmed dead. Police said Yamada did not suffer any injury in her failed suicide bid.
She was quoted by police as saying, "When I thought about my husband's future, I got worried, so I thought I would kill him to put him at ease."
© Japan Today
4 Comments
Login to comment
garypen
Isn't that what the nursing home staff is supposed to be doing?
Abe234
This might have just been a short respite Time. Maybe just a short time and she couldn’t face looking after someone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for ( until the next time) . It’s gotta be the hardest thing you’ll ever do and makes looking after a baby seem like a piece of cake. When we get to that age, can any of us imagine possibly cleaning an incontinent partner, someone who wakes up at all hours of the night? Maybe even can’t look after themselves anymore .
Abe234
So I can understand why someone could do this. But I have not idea why she did it as they were both in a nursing home together.
tigerjane
Here are some of the reasons this lady may have done it first shay no longer had the finances or family support to keep him in the facility he was in. I have heard the public nursing homes are worse than prison true or not true I can only go based on hearsay story of a friend's relative who was in one doesn't sound attractive at all.
My heart goes out to the deceased and his elderly wife who I am sure felt in her mind was the last resort. The Japanese Government needs to do more to help the elderly and not bleed them dry as they get older such as raising their health care benefits to over 40 thousand yen a month.