Police in Tokyo said Tuesday they have arrested a 49-year-old woman on suspicion of abandoning a body after she left the corpse of her newborn baby in coin lockers for 4-5 years.
According to police, the woman, Emiri Suzaki, turned herself in at a police station in Arakawa Ward at around 11 a.m. on Monday and said she had left her baby's remains in a locker near JR Uguisudani Station in Taito Ward on Sept 13, Fuji TV reported. Police went to the locker and found the infant’s remains in a plastic bag inside a tote bag.
Suzaki, who has no fixed address or employment, told police she had given birth to the baby in a hotel room four or five years ago. She said the baby was stillborn, and she panicked because she didn't know what to do with it, so she placed the infant's body in various lockers at the station for the past few years. She would go back to the lockers every few days and put coins in.
Police said the gender of the baby is unknown.
Suzaki told police she was evicted from the place where she had been staying and forgot to take the locker key with her, so she decided to tell police what she had done before someone else found the key.
© Japan Today
31 Comments
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Ex_Res
The legal system here is stuck in the late 1800'
I think that you are right, perhaps late 1700's though.
I think that the legal aystem in Japan is the one thing that is going backwards in Japan, not forwards.
Hence Japans high re-offending rate.
Giveme_abreak
Well it depends on what kind of love you are giving. If it's something just "extravagant" or "material " of course it will not guarantee your child to be a better human being.
The best bond that any parents can do to their child is hugging or embracing it will bring positive effects to a child and a chemical called oxytocin is released during when a person feels loved and connected. It has been shown to help parents bond with their children, adding a sense of trust and support between them.
Of course teaching them humility and supporting them in any kind of way will always makes a difference.
Yubaru
The legal system here is stuck in the late 1800's. Me thinks you are going to be waiting an awful long time too, as you are not going to hear anything else about this.
Don't hold your breath.
Ex_Res
I am curious to see how (in 2018) Japans legal system deals with somebody who, I think most people would regard, as mentally ill.
Garthgoyle
Not everybody is raised in a good family. And even if everyone was raised in a good family with good morals there's still would be crime and not the best choices because not everybody get the same chances, treatment and experiences in life. So no matter how much love you give to your child now, 30 years later that child could be a serial killer.
Yubaru
At 40 plus years old, I think that she has passed the age of needing to be treated as a child.
602miko
I don't understand why some parents didn't support thier children of how to give advice at least a parental guidance of how to raise and keeping thier child in good hand and love. Or ask help if they were in trouble ?
Strangerland
The usage of 'abandon' when the person still has possession of the body sounds incorrect in English. This charge in Japanese is 死体遺棄 (したいいき shitai-iki, corpse-abandon), and in Japanese law it refers to the abandonment of responsibility in regards to a body. There are more appropriate words in English, however this does appear to be the translation that the government uses, so it's appropriate that JT also uses this term. While it sounds strange in English, any trials will be done in Japanese, and the charge makes sense in Japanese.
starpunk
Wouldn't the odor of decay give some clue away during all this time? Utterly baffling and a bit disgusting.
Strangerland
Right. Homeless, jobless, and pregnant, giving birth in a hotel room. How dare she put herself in that position. What an evil, disgusting woman. No sympathy. Burn her.
Strangerland
Should they have suppressed this information?
Chip Star
It's illegal in most jurisdictions to abandon a body. For those of you who think keeping a body in a coin locker, fridge, etc. is not "abandoning" it, you may want to research the legal definition. It typically means failure to appropriately dispose of a body.
That said, I was relieved to discover that this woman was unemployed. That is always my first concern when I hear a crime was committed. My second being the age of the suspect. Those are two very important facts that have absolutely no relevance to anything.
Yubaru
You may have read it, but that still does not mean you understood it. I just answered your question, which was, and I quote here.....
Since the body of the child was not interred properly, and not reported to the proper authorities, in a timely manner, she was charged with abandoning the body. Like I said, it's a common charge, even when people leave their dead family member to mummify in their house for years, they get charged with the SAME charge of abandoning the body.
Wolfpack
One of the most bizarre crime stories I’ve heard about in a long time. Sounds like the beginnings of a horror movie plot.
Clare Yoshida
She paid to store the body in station locker for 4+ years?! Assuming 300yen per day that’s at least 438,000 yen. Utterly baffling behaviour.
Disillusioned
After picking my jaw up from the floor I only have one thing to say, this woman is seriously mentally ill!
Ex_Res
Yubaru
Yes I read the article. She did not appear to adandon the body.
She will have to appear before a judge within 72 hours of the arrest, I would think that the judge would be able to make a decision on this.
Yubaru
Did you read the article?
Which is a catch all kind of charge, often used in suspicious deaths, by the police, to hold a suspect. It is illegal here in Japan to abandon a body. By itself, depending upon the case, not enough to actually receive jail time, but allows the police to take their time in building a case against a suspect.
Ex_Res
Jail her anyway.
Jail her for what? Is there a charge yet?
Yubaru
Actually she was in her early to mid 40's when the baby was born, and hopefully a pathologist can find a cause of death.
I for one am not going to try and convict here based on the information here, as we really do not know the full story, and she comes across as being mentally unstable at least.
Lets give her her day in court before lynching her!
Andrew Crisp
No sympathy for this woman - if she was worried about the health of her new born she would have called an ambulance, she's 49 not 18 at this age she would have known what to do, she only confessed because she it was only a matter of time before the police caught up with her, it also wouldn't surprise me that another reason she confessed because was or was about to become homeless.
wanderlust
Japanese do have Inouchi no Denwa - a telephone help line - to turn to for advice, though many seem to have never heard of it; whilst many who have lived abroad call TELL -the Tokyo English Life Line.
taj
"she decided to tell police what she had done before someone else found the key."
5 years of looking after a corpse baby and when she finally slips up, well, ... at least at this point she made the right decision.
Serrano
"She said the baby was stillborn, and she panicked because she didn't know what to do with it,"
Calling an ambulance would have been out of the question? In her mental state at the time I guess it was.
And then the moving the baby's corpse from locker to locker over the next several years.... it is regrettable in the extreme she felt she had no one to confide in about this tragedy.
Garthgoyle
Poor woman. For five years she carried her dead child from place to place and kept it all to herself. A really sad story.
Concerned Citizen
Very sad story.
Omachi
Hardly abandoned - she moved it every other day for up to 5 years.
PhantomAgent
I am no way unsympathetic with this woman or with the soul of this child, but I Couldn't help to think that she had accommodation on her mind when she turned herself in!i
Michael Jackson
Isn't it convenient how often these unwanted babies are stillborn? Who could tell otherwise after so long, and she gets away with murder.
smithinjapan
It is sad, especially when you keep in mind that many here are still against the idea of baby hatches because they claim it will lead to people being irresponsible... and then this.
Vince Black
So sad. No one around her to give enough craps to help her out.
Jail her anyway.