crime

Man arrested over arson-murder in Gunma in March

6 Comments

Police in Midori, Gunma Prefecture, have arrested a 38-year-old Filipino on suspicion of killing a 73-year-old man and setting fire to his house in March.

According to police, the suspect, a part-time worker, allegedly beat Akiyo Funato, who lived alone, with a blunt object sometime on the night of March 30, Kyodo News reported. He is also accused of stealing money and then setting the two-story wooden house on fire.

Flames were seen coming from the house at about 8 p.m. by a neighbor who called 119. Funato’s body was found on the first floor about two hours later after the fire was extinguished. Police said an autopsy revealed Funato had sustained several broken ribs and a broken shoulder blade and that he had died due to subcutaneous bleeding before the fire began.

Neighbors said they last saw Funato working in the field on the morning of March 30.

Police did not say whether the suspect, who was first arrested on April 8 for illegal being in Japan, has pleaded guilty or not.

Police said the two men knew each other after meeting in June last year. They also said that surveillance camera footage showed him near the house on the night of the fire.

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6 Comments
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They also said that surveillance camera footage showed him near the house on the night of the fire.

So not traced by his mobile phone... Got it!

3 ( +6 / -3 )

camera footage showed him near the house on the night of the fire.

Near the house, not necessarily he burnt that house.

-9 ( +0 / -9 )

According to police, the suspect, a part-time worker, allegedly beat Akiyo Funato, who lived alone, with a blunt object sometime on the night of March 30, Kyodo News reported. He is also accused of stealing money and then setting the two-story wooden house on fire.

I'm now just wondering why the suspect's basic ID is being withheld. In such grave multiple crimes the name is usually published in accordance with the protocol. Is it because the suspect is a non-Japanese national? The practice should be fair and consistent, applied to everyone.

I'm usually critical to the current ID revelation rules for the suspect in Japan whose practice also tends to be arbitrary. I suggest that the name basically be kept from reporting unless the suspect gets charged at trial.

FYI, as the protocol, Japan's police usually release the suspect's full IDs to the media (belonging to the kisha club for the police department). Thus it is media outlets, not police, who decide what and how much info to publish or not.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Sadly, @Alex turns out the suspect was someone Funato knew and had perhaps trusted . . . at one time. :

the two men knew each other after meeting in Jun last year…camera footage showed him near the house on the night of the fire.

*Apr 3: “Poor soul. Worked every day of his life to have some punk, most likely someone he knew, come over at night and beat him until he divulged where every penny he every saved was hidden in the house.” - @Alex: Agreed. The brutality people seem to show their elders out here so often... - smh -” -man-whose-body-found-after-house-fire-was-beaten-to-death-police-say*

2 ( +5 / -3 )

With @Mr.Kipling 7:15am on how often Japan’s abundance of ‘cameras’ in the right places, (some on towers?) are often triangulated to ‘ping’ where suspects may have been at or near the scene of a crime leading to arrest.

Still, hope the suspect gets his due process and a just conviction if found guilty.

*- @Mr. Kipling 7:15am: “So not traced by his mobile phone... Got it!” - *

3 ( +6 / -3 )

@Noriahojanen He has been named on other news sites as Paulo Mendoza Nepomuceno.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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