A man was arrested Tuesday over the murder of a 25-year-old woman, who was found unconscious on the street in front of a hotel near Yokohama Station on Monday night. The woman, who had strangulation marks on her neck, was taken to hospital where she died later, after an unidentified man called emergency services, police said.
The suspect, identified as Kenji Kurihara, 47, was arrested shortly after police launched a search for the man who called emergency services to report the crime and accompanied the woman to the hospital, but left without leaving any information about the victim or himself.
Kurihara was found and arrested by police in a private room at a video-viewing facility near Yokohama Station on Tuesday. According to police, he has denied all charges and insists he is not involved in the murder.
Police believe the victim, Maasa Fujioka, 25, met Kurihara via an online dating site, and went to the Yokohama hotel.
© Compiled from news reports
21 Comments
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cactusJack
I suspect she was drugged as well.
Tahoochi
Dentshop: If you want to get technical, then yes, you're right. I was simply using a term for expression.
DentShop
Well, until proven guilty - he is innocent. Right? We still do that thing dont we?
MoBass4u
But it always seems to be THAT hard here.
This comment says it all about some of the criminals here.
Manpe
@kujiranikusuki
That's because everyone turns themselves in the next day.
chuckbello
At least the guy has some explanation to do. I guess he is the last person to have seen the woman alive.
A private room at a video-watching facility= watching porn. They still have those rooms. I though the internet cafe took over all of them.
Tahoochi
Some very typical comments so far regarding how bad the J-cops are... even going so far as to saying that they're arresting an innocent man!
Well the part about the 2 meeting on-line pretty much concluded it for me personally. I mean, they've got the girl's cell phone (including who she's called, emails, etc.), all her belongings, and if that's not enough, they've probably already searched her room for evidence linking her to the man including evidence of an appointment to meet that day... then she's left strangled in front of a hotel where the man happened to be? So what, the 2 met on-line, went for a date, then when the date ended, they both went their separate ways and the girl went to a hotel where she was strangled by a totally different person, then the man she met on-line came back to rescue her but it was too late so he called an ambulance and went to the hospital with her but left without a word??? I don't think so. The guy is 95% guilty in my eyes. Why else would the cops say that they believe they met on-line?
ihavegreatlegs
Always use a pay phone.
Nessie
Oh for the love of Benten, get it right, translators! The article almost certainly means to say that she was found on the ground and pronounced dead at the hospital. There's almost no chance she died at the hospital.
nandakandamanda
If he was in a private room at a video-viewing facility, it suggests that he didn't give an address because he didn't have one.
The police know she collapsed in the street outside a love hotel to where the ambulance was called. They have CCTV footage of a man supporting a staggering woman out of this same love hotel just before the event.
With a bit of phone tracing and face matching, it should not be hard to put a preliminary two and two together.
Monkeyz
@whalemeat
Your comment is pretty naive. Japan has a high conviction rate because A.) a lot of people confess suddenly, and B.) the J-cops torture confessions out of people.
In other words, they convict just about everyone they arrest, and that person confesses--whether they're actually guilty or not.
If you read this site much at all you'd see that killers often are the ones who call the cops (part of that spontaneous confession thing) because they apparently don't realize that killing someone will usually cause them to die. Usually it's something like, "I got angry so I strangled her." Trying to escape/running away like Ichihashi did is unusual.
MrDog
I think that what Kujira was saying was that if you call the emergency services, they log the call info, even if he didn't give his name, they could find it by checking who owns the number that the call was placed from. If the call came from a cell phone that is.
A wank-shack.
techall
Me thinks not all the information known by the police is not in this article. One scenario is the he may have acted out of rage, realized what he was doing, carried her to the street and called emergency services not knowing if she was dead or not. So she is pronounced dead at hospital and he goes on the lam. Dating site = call girl prostitution.
602miko
@ dating site ... scarrrrrry !!!!!!!
lucabrasi
But it says the caller was "unidentified". So he didn't give his name. Which is a bit suspicious.
gaijinfo
I'm sure people will think twice now about calling for the cops or an ambulance. This poor guy will confess in a couple days. Of course if he actually did it, then he should go to jail. Even if he did, he was likely not intending to kill her, and was maybe a bit freaked out when they went to the hospital. Maybe he bolted when he realized how serious it was. But if he did do it, surely they should find some DNA evidence?
NetNinja
Well well well, in my own backyard. This is typical of Yokohama police, majoring in the minor and minoring the major.
This arrest was more of a political move than anything else. We have to arrest someone. We wouldn't be good cops if we didn't. It doesn't matter if they're right or wrong so long as they are doing their duty.
My friend once called these clowns in uniform when he was physical threatened. They did nothing.
I....I...NetNinja...I called these guys when I was attacked by itty bitty thin Japanese GF who destroyed my personal property. They did nothing PLUS would not remove the woman from my home after she turned it all upside down.
These are police who come into a situation and don't ask if you need a hospital after you are attacked. They never ask "Do you need medical attention?"
So this good samaritan is going to get what he deserves cause no good deed goes unpunished by Japanese law. You took the woman to the hospital? That's tampering with the crime scene. There must be some motive.
Don't worry folks. After depriving the suspect of proper food and sleep, after cutting off all contact from lawyers, family, and friends we should have a FULL confession.
You should see the box they put them in for interrogation. They will break him mentally if he's not strong. No food and water for days breaks everybody who's not a NAVY SEAL down.
Enjoy the show if the media continues to follow it. Yokohama is the most crooked city in the country.
Kaptankichigai
in a private room at a video-viewing facility near Yokohama Station- what is that exactly?
Frungy
... I mean seriously dudes, that he called an ambulance when he saw an unconscious woman is NOT sufficient cause to arrest someone! Ask them in for voluntary questioning, sure! ... but ARREST?! I mean where the hell is their evidence? This country REALLY needs to start sueing the police for wrongful arrest.
tokyochris
Could have been due to guilt?
kujiranikusuki
do you REALLY think the murder would go to the hospital with her? do you REALLY think he would call emergency services if he was the murder? He should be a person on intrest not a murder suspect!!! I love the J-police. I really do. I think they do a great job. I think people bash them far too often. They have the highest murder arrest rate in the world!!! something like 95% of all murder cases are solved. In the USA its like 30% and we have 4000% more murders! anyway. any idiot knows if you call emrgancy service they are will have your cell phone number and then your name! no one is that dumb. He didnt do it!