Man kills himself during police search of apartment; 2 bodies discovered in closet

Weird story, I dont know how people could live with dead bodies the smell must be incredible. And what do they think storing them is going to do eventually they will be found.

Police doing a half assed job again it seems the apartment owner discovering the bodies, the police were conducting a search and called it off half way through?

Police said Thursday a 62-year-old man committed suicide on Monday while they were at his apartment conducting a search in connection with a theft. Two bodies were subsequently discovered in the closet of the apartment in Fukushima on Wednesday afternoon

Just when you think the Japanese plod couldn't get any dumber.

Why is it when police search a police for a crime they always leave the suspect unattended? Granted, theft isn't all that serious (depending on what's stolen), compared to, say, letting Ichihashi out the window, but still. This guy was allowed to walk freely up to the roof and then jump to his death.

The police canceled the search due to his leap? Never suspecting their search might have something to do with it? Got to wonder about their powers of investigation/ observation. Another one for the office board at work, never fail to fail.

Didn't something like this happen a few months ago?

keystones will be keystones! We sadly havent seen the end of the stupidity some of these slackers are going to do

Let's see what the jpolice did wrong here. I spot a couple of things:

Letting the man go. If you're there to inspect his apartment, you obviously must have some kind of suspicion of wrong doing right? If so, why would you let the man leave??

Calling off the search after the man jumped off the roof. That would of immediately told me that he was hiding something, hence the Jpolice should of ramped up the search.

So many fails...

He must have lived on 21 Jump Street.

Sorry, it's not because I'm as dumb as a post or have the mental faculties of toothpaste, but I'm not getting this: why did he jump off the roof?? 

Crazy story! I hope the J-constabulary gets to the bottom of this.

Maybe I'm just used to the run of the mill crime in America, but crime and criminals in Japan are strange.

Key point that most are making. Why did they let him leave? They are police officers he can call and cancel his appointment infront of them. Well now everyone know how to get away from the coppers if you are in trouble.

"excuse but would you mind letting me make a private phone call"

Not too sure what to think, are we saving money by this guy not going to jail and jumping off the roof?? Should the J police get some credit??

I know the area well - it is 2 mins away from mine. Quite dodgy area, full of gangs, pimps, brothels and the rest - and rarely if ever do the police show a presence there. Not such a shock to be perfectly honest. Anyway, let's wait to see how these 2 dead blokes were involved...

Why were they searching his apartment in the first place??

Honestly, some of the cops here make me wonder what exactly they do in basic training.

Guy left alone Searched called off Allowing people into the apartment without knowing what was inside

I feel for those owners. What a horrific thing to find. Hmmm... wonder if they'll lower the rent?

I feel for those owners. What a horrific thing to find. Hmmm... wonder if they'll lower the rent?

Maybe a 5% discount - at best!

Half the key money?

tmarieApr. 12, 2012 - 01:49PM JST

Why were they searching his apartment in the first place??

Onj the TV news it said they wanted to question him about a theft.

Seems weird that nearly always Japanese people live with the dead bodies.

"Why is it when police search a police for a crime..."

Oops! Didn't self-edit. Meant 'place' instead of the second 'police'. And now that I think about it an above poster is correct that it's also weird that the police called off the search once the man jumped. Was the item suspected stolen not still stolen just because the man offed himself?

Talk about skeletons in the closet...

it's that weekend police training again. wouldnt the closet be one of the first things you check? was it a hidden? why did they let him wonder off while they was searching his place? "he needed to cancel an appointment" he could of done a runner.

SS3 "why did he jump off the roof??"

He must have thought they were going to open his closet door...

nope it is totally clear to me, the suspect jumps to his death, no more paperwork! and it is nice weather!, time to take out the sailor suits :p

Shoulda just left the bodies on the roof.

If the bodies had begun to decay, to the point making ID difficult, didn't the cops notice anything malodourous? Then again, answering my own question, noticing things is not their strong point.

The Police just let a suspect wander off while his apartment is being searched. If I recall Ichihashi was given enough freedom during the search of his apartment to allow him to escape. I despair how gullible and naive these search teams are. A review of Jcop basic training is in order if this is the normal procedure on a planned search.

sick reporting

Sounds like some piss-poor police work. Standard police-procedure WORLD-WIDE is, after discovering the dead bodies the man should have been immediately arrested, put in handcuffs and taken away for interrogation. That is done to protect the police more so than worrying about the guy doing hare-kari on himself the Japanese way. I bet those guys will be on traffic patrol soon and taken off that kind of police work.

after discovering the dead bodies the man should have been immediately arrested, put in handcuffs and taken away for interrogation.

Did you bother to read the article? The guy jumped and the cops didn't find the body...

Still, one has to thank the gentleman in question for having the good manners to save the taxpayers the cost of a trial and execution. His little jump must have saved the taxpayers at least 100 million yen (possibly more if there were appeals, delaying tactics, etc before his execution).

Sounds like some piss-poor police work. Standard police-procedure WORLD-WIDE is, after discovering the dead bodies the man should have been immediately arrested, put in handcuffs and taken away for interrogation. That is done to protect the police more so than worrying about the guy doing hare-kari on himself the Japanese way. I bet those guys will be on traffic patrol soon and taken off that kind of police work.

The police did not discover the dead bodies. They went their in search of stolen property. The guy killed himself. They decided to call off their search for stolen property (piddling compared to the death of the guy). Then the owners of the apartment found the bodies, after the death.

What is piss poor about that police work? If one suspects someone of petty theft then should they have realised that he would kill himself? Or should they have realised that if he did kill himself then he must have had a good reason for it, and completed the search of his apartment?

Perhaps the cultural message here is that Japanese people commit suicide when they are about to be found out to be a thief. The police are aware of this. And hence the police were also aware that the fact of the suspects suicide did not indicate that the suspect had bodies in his closet. As it turned out he did but there was nothing in the suspects behaviour to allow them to reach that conclusion.

Had it been in the USA, on the other hand, where a few stolen items, drugs, and unregistered gun would often only cause the suspect to abuse the cops that were arresting him, then yes, if the suspect topped himself the police would be right to think that something more was at stake.

But this was not the US and Japanese men do kill themselves when they are to be caught doing something much less criminal. I think the politician Shouichi Nakagawa died by misadventure because he was caught falling asleep, allegedly drunk, on duty. Should the police who found his body have searched his closets in case there were dead bodies inside?

No, they should have searched his closet because they were there on a search in connection with a theft. I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes, if people steal things, they hide them. Closets are often a good place for storing things you don't want people to see, like stolen goods. Or bodies. They also should not have allowed him to leave the apartment until they had completed their search. Had the police followed proper procedure, the guy would not have offed himself and the bodies would have been found right away.

What is piss poor about that police work? If one suspects someone of petty theft then should they have realised that he would kill himself? Or should they have realised that if he did kill himself then he must have had a good reason for it, and completed the search of his apartment?

It is piss poor because you NEVER let a suspect out of your sight for any reason - be it murder, petty theft, drunk driving... Seems they didn't learn from having egg on their face with Ichihashi.

How many officers? And did they all think it fine for a suspect to wander off? Even the superior officer in attendance?

A litany of failure here.

The mind truly boggles at just exactly what goes on inside the heads of many Japanese police.

I guess some are much like a rural Koban - lights on, but no-one in.

It just showed us how JPolice can be so stupid at times. The best the JPolice Department can do is kick those policemen out of service.

People trained in law enforcement don't let the suspect leave or even hang around during a search without supervision. They would probably take him outside and have someone start questioning him while they search the interior. He could be going out to his car to get his gun for all they know.

Onj the TV news it said they wanted to question him about a theft.

The theft of two bodies, maybe?

Won't guess why these bodies were in the closet but do the minds of these people storing bodies away actually think "If I dump this body then i can get busted for abandonment of a body" without seeing the gravity of the original crime itself? On a different note, & I'm just throwing out a hypothetical scenario here but... if I were writing this as a crime novel, wouldn't this be a great opportunity for someone, like the landlords, to get rid of almost anything that they had in fact been hiding or doing? Once again so I dont get censored; HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION.

what's happening with j-cops lately??

I understand the national police have been thinking about looking into police procedure training ever since Ichihashi walked away from 18 cops who discovered a dead body on his balcony three years ago. And he was shoeless at the time. A review is due sometime at the turn of the century.

Wait a second ! This happened in Fukushima? I'm sure we are missing lots of details here .

Could the bodies be those of relatives who commited suicide due to depression brought on by 3.11 ? Was the suspect thieving to pay for a decent burial/funeral ? Or was he just a weirdo with necrophilia ?

Put it down to the Keystone`s reprise of Invasion of the Body Snatchers frightening the bejesus out of him.