A 38-year-old woman and her two children were found dead in their home in Ogori, Fukuoka Prefecture, police said Wednesday. Police said the mother, Yukiko Nakata, her son Ryosuke, 9, and her daughter Miyu, 6, were strangled to death, Fuji TV reported.
Nakata's husband, who is a police officer, said everything appeared normal and that his family were still sleeping when he left for work at 6:45 a.m. on Tuesday.
The bodies were found at around 9:20 a.m. by Yukiko's sister. When the children did not show up at school, the school called Nakata's husband who called his wife's sister and asked her to check on them.
Yukiko was found face-up on the kitchen floor. The children were found lying on futons on the second floor.
Police said there were no signs of a struggle in the house and initially believed that the mother had killed her children and then herself because a burned coal briquette was found near her body. However, autopsies showed that she and her children had been strangled to death.
© Japan Today
17 Comments
TheGodfather
Breaking News:
The police officer husband has been arrested on suspicion of murder...
Haneka
This all happened when the husband was home, he must be a heavy sleeper.
mirkwood
unless schools in fukuoka starts really late.
on a weekday, elementary kids usually would be up and starting their day by 630am or 7am...
the dad claims that his wife and kids were still sleeping by 7am when he left for work...
and he didnt even think of waking his kids up for school?
therougou
I think you are confusing the "Breaking News" strip on the top with the actual article, which says "18 hours ago".
The Japanese NHK article does mention when they were murdered.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20170607/k10011009161000.html?utm_int=all_side_ranking-access_005
Giveme_abreak
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20170607_18/
This was just out 19 mins ago and I have not read them saying the children were murdered at a certain time.
Luddite
NHK News this evening said the chiildren were murdered between the hours of midnight and 5am. There is definitely one person they should be questioning.
pacint
He was at work where the school contacted him that the kids hadn't arrived.
He in turn contacted the sister to have a look, who called 110 that her sister had suicided.
Giveme_abreak
Everybody might not agree to this but in this type of case "everyone should be a suspect", the sister, the husband, the neighbors and the mail man. Until they have the proof that wife killed the 2 kids and herself, speculations should be open.
wtfjapan
Does it mean their speculation is baseless just because they are speculating. Its all just speculation until the facts are revealed, enough facts that prove beyond reasonable doubt who & how the crime was committed.
clamenza
The husband will be an immediate suspect
DaDude
I hope the triple murderer is caught asap. I hope the judge considers the value of a child's life the same as an adult's and the suspect is given the highest possible punishment.
therougou
They were killed on the 6th, but the police didn't start investigating it as murder until today (7th). I was wondering why it took them so long to come to the conclusion of murder, but an article on yahoo japan lists 3 reasons the police gave:
1) It wasn't clear if the mother (Yukiko) was murdered or not by looking at her body.
2) When the sister called 110, she said "my sister has committed suicide".
3) Both the sister and husband said Yukiko had been struggling with depression recently while raising her kids.
The first one I don't understand really if there was no rope or anything near her body. But maybe they are playing to the husband/sister because they find them suspicious? Let the conspiracy theories begin.
About the kids still being asleep, my daughter goes to elementary school and doesn't wake up till 7:30. She still has time to do a quick facetime with grandma/grandpa. Depends how close you are to the school and what time you go to bed, I guess.
drlucifer
There is always speculation in every crime by those tasked
to solve the crime. Does it mean their speculation is baseless
just because they are speculating ?
pacint
Kids in bed before 19:00, more likely early time is 22:00- 23:00 if not 02:00=03:00.
SauloJpn
Kind of odd. On a week day just before 7, the kids were in bed, let's say someone went in and strangled the mother still early enough to get to the kids still in bed(futon)?
Aly Rustom
Husband was a police officer. Maybe someone with a grudge against him? Also, how do we know that it was one person? 2 or 3 people could have entered the house and killed the 3 simutaneously. Lets just wait and see how this story develops before we jump to any conclusions.