crime

Mother, 2 children found dead in apparent murder-suicide leap from cliff

38 Comments

Police in Choshi, Chiba prefecture, said Friday that a mother and her two young children were found dead at the shore near a lighthouse in an apparent murder-suicide.

According to police, the bodies of the three -- a 39-year-old woman and her two daughters, aged 6 and 4 -- were found just before noon Thursday at the bottom of a 20-meter cliff near the Inubosaki lighthouse in Chiba Prefecture.

TBS quoted police as saying it looked like the mother threw herself and her two daughters off the cliff.

Police said they received a call just after 10 a.m. Thursday from a man in Ichikawa, saying that his wife and children had gone to visit the lighthouse, but had not come home.

Police and firefighters went to the lighthouse and found the three bodies. They were confirmed dead at the scene. Police said the bodies showed signs of having been subjected to physical trauma, possibly caused by the fall and by the waves slamming them into rocks, TBS reported.

The woman's car was parked nearby, police said.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

38 Comments
Login to comment

Rest in peace kids. I hope the next world makes up for this one.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

So sad for the little girls.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Another mother jumps with her kids. Why do these freaks insist their kids need to go with them? There is NO excuse! None! RIP to the little ones who never had a chance to live their lives thanks to this stupid and selfish woman.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

if you're screwed in the head, kill yourself, but leave your kids, family and the public alone.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Ah, again! Stop killing your bloody kids!

3 ( +6 / -3 )

My heart goes out to the children, mother and family. Just a terrible tragedy.

I don't have enough information to go any further than calling it a murder-suicide (in all likely hood it is), but if I were the father, I don't know if my first instinct would be to call the police. I think I'd go to the lighthouse first, take a look to see if I found anything suspicious and then call the police, or call the police while in route to the lighthouse. A bit suspicious.

Again, I don't have any information and for all I know he did exactly what I just described.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Oh God! why the kids man!!!!.... 6 and 4 years old innocent kids, had hardly seen the world.... if u are not able to cope up with your life and want to die, why drag your kids along with u!!.... very sad news....

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Kill yourself and not your kids! the mother is a murderer and will rot in hell.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Rest in peace little ones

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Is this a product of the Japanese society that believes that kids MUST be raised by the mother. The father, who is typically a slave to the company, is not believed to be a fit parent; hence custody always going to the mother in divorce settlements?

So she is depressed, and decides life is not worth living. Post partum depression, lack of support as a mother, whatever. She decides to kill herself but takes the kids with her because the father could not possibly raise them.

Sad, sad sad.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Fishy, fishy, fishy. What time did they leave Ichikawa to drive all the way to Choshi and at 10:00 am they were so late coming home that the husband called police? Fishy!

0 ( +3 / -3 )

HokkaidoKuma: "I don't have enough information to go any further than calling it a murder-suicide (in all likely hood it is), but if I were the father, I don't know if my first instinct would be to call the police. I think I'd go to the lighthouse first, take a look to see if I found anything suspicious and then call the police, or call the police while in route to the lighthouse. A bit suspicious."

What's suspicious about it? He got home, they weren't there, he called the police. I'd be MORE suspicious if he went to the lighthouse and walked around, maybe finding the bodies, THEN called police. Perhaps he knew his wife was not mentally well (couldn't possibly be to do what she did), and so knew something was wrong the minute he got home and they weren't there.

In any case, just like the mother a couple of weeks back who took her three dis with her off the top of a building, we have another loon who stole her children's lives out of nothing short of cowardice and selfishness. Stop taking the kids with you!!

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

The woman was desperate, maybe she was sick. She knew no way out, did not want to leave the children in as situation I can not imagine. So infinitely sad, I had to cry. Stop taking the kids with you, the words are meaningless to those in pain, unimaginable pain. All I can ask is 'why did no one see this coming, why couldn't this have been prevented?

I ask myself and I have asked myself if I could not have done something to stop at least 3 people from killing themselves over the past decades, people I knew well. It haunts you for the rest of your life because I imagine the pain they were in and the pain and suffering of the ones left behind.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

I've lived here a little over ten years and three people I have known have killed themselves. They were all mothers with kids ranging in age from 6-16. Coincidence? Gladly though, they did not kill their kids too.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Letsberealistic: I never said being suicidal makes you a freak, but taking others with you, whatever the excuse, does! Why should I have any compassion for her after taking her kids with her?

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

I'll say it again ..kids have no chance here

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Such a great shame for those that lost their lives and for the ones left behind.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Awful, I know & have been to this lighthouse a few times.................poor kids

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@letsberealistic: I honestly do not believe I have the capacity to murder my kids, no matter how suicidal/depressed. I think most people don't either, no matter how "ramped up" things become. It takes a hard core of selfishness to off your kids when you decide to do yourself in.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Is this a product of the Japanese society that believes that kids MUST be raised by the mother. The father, who is typically a slave to the company, is not believed to be a fit parent; hence custody always going to the mother in divorce settlements?

Or perhaps this is the product of Japanese society that believes children are objects and usually mothers feel they have ownership to those objects? I agree with your divorce comment though.

RIP poor kids.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Taking your own life is most selfish act anyone can do. You might think it is "removing the pain" but actually it's inflicting pain on everyone else that knew you.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

So sad, the little ones never even had a chance to live on their own and make their own decisions. Personally, I think we need to look at why this happened - suicide happens for various reasons. The mother, I'm guessing, didn't have the support she needed to get through whatever triggered her suicidal thoughts; her children paid the price for it. A tragedy of this kind should motivate us to act as a society about what the reasons are and how we can prevent it, not just attack one of the victim. Otherwise, if the children's mother had killed herself and left her kids behind, what's to say they wouldn't have become depressed and suicidal themselves, continuing the cycle...

0 ( +2 / -2 )

“Police said they received a call just after 10 a.m. Thursday from a man in Ichikawa, saying that his wife and children had gone to visit the lighthouse, but had not come home.”

Did she say: “Alright, we’ll all go to the lighthouse, and jump”, or not? Did they leave the house in the morning and still not home yet at 10 a.m., prompting the husband to call the police, because they’ve never stayed away that long before? Or did they leave the house the previous night, and the husband waited till 10 a.m. next morning, thinking they were having some great time outside, and called? Pray let us hear a bit more, so we know, more or less, how to respond to this very sad story. People fall off the cliff in so many ways that the movie scenes I have watched come to mind.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Taking your own life is most selfish act anyone can do.

Exactly right! Staying alive is my revenge! :P

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Suicide is a selfish option. That option shouldn't include taking someone with you.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

As painful as it is to write, some human beings believe that if you create people (i.e. have kids) then you have a responsibility to destroy them too if you feel that you and them are, or will be, a burden on others (these days that burden would be mostly of the financial kind). They believe the kids are an extension of the parent, literally a part of them. When you have decided to end it all, you take all parts with you. We don't understand it but others do. We were brought up to think suicide (and murder-suicide) is bad but others weren't, so there's not much point calling it one name or another. The best thing people can do it talk to people. Get to know your neighbors and be active in the community. Small steps but big impact.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I used to work/live out in Chiba & had the chance to drive ALL OVER. Cho'shi was one of my favorite spots. That area is REALLY something, the strength of the Ocean is always present. RIP little ones.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

When you get NO help from your partner, your family, friends or yourself, you begin to believe only YOU can really know what to do. Of course this is unforgiveable, totally beyond anything any of us should have to read about or know BUT... perhaps we need to start understanding in order to stop it happening again. What I would do to offer her sanctuary, care and understanding, to give those children the life they so fully deserve. Just too sad.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

and there isn't a term in Japanese for 'murder-suicide'. The expression in Japanese (ikka shinju) is more like 'a family suicide' but 'shinju' literally means 'the same mind' so the nuance is totally different from the English expression. No doubt the kids in such families are not 'of the same mind' and don't want to kill themselves but it's interesting how different the expression is.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

"serendipitousJul. 19, 2014 - 12:17PM JST and there isn't a term in Japanese for 'murder-suicide'. The expression in Japanese (ikka shinju) is more like 'a family suicide' but 'shinju' literally means 'the same mind' so the nuance is totally different from the English expression. No doubt the kids in such families are not 'of the same mind' and don't want to kill themselves but it's interesting how different the expression is."

murder-suicide = ‘murishinju’. In that ‘shinju’ is suicide, its Chinese characters are adapted for sound, have nothing to do with “mind” or “heart” which are the original meaning of those characters; ‘muri’, from ‘muriyari’, means physically forcing, thus murder-suicide. Shinju having to do with mind or heart is a variation of ‘shinchu’, a Chinese word.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Dead people can't talk but the fathers account sounds a little fishy I hope this is not the case of a father wanting to start his life over with a new younger bride. I think he should provide an up to the minute detail of his where about with witness support to verify his story! Calling the police and not going there seems to make me think that he knows more.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

There's always a great sense of shock to everyone when a mother not only takes her life but chooses to take her children with her. It's most disturbing because of what a mother's relationship with her children is for most families. Most mother would gladly give up their own lives to protect their children. From a altruistic point, a classic case is when a mother plans to take her life and believes that the children are better off in heaven with her. Another case is if the parent was acutely psychotic. However in all cases a person contemplating suicide mistakenly perceives suicide as the only thing that will end their pain. Regardless of the reason it breaks the heart to hear of stories like this. Still it will never be clear to us the motivation behind anyone who would end the life of something as precious as their children.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

oldman: "Sad, reminiscent of the Battle of Okinawa."

Ummm.... yeah.... save that it is not at all reminiscent of the Battle of Okinawa in any way; or did this woman kill her kids and herself at the Emperor's behest because American troops were close behind?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I'm so sorry to hear this sad news. I wish the Mother didn't have to take her kids, must have been revenge on the Father? What a terrible and sad story. I pray for the children. They should of had their whole lives ahead of them. Rest in Peace lil ones

0 ( +0 / -0 )

American surfer, the dead or should I say deceased cannot talk besides JT didn't give much information all they did was make the readers "THINK" the mother took her childrens lives. Remember there is a father who waited to call there is another part of this story and again dead or deceased people cannot tell their side of the story. Here is another twist why not think that the father took the family to the light house and pushed them over! Perhaps he wanted to start a new life over with a new women! No one knows but the people involved and we don't get it here reading JT!!! Is that ok MOD!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I can't find my words for the sad children. too young to die.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

serendipitous thoughts are plausible, thank you, but is it likely that the Children would have been a burden? I think I should have liked to adopt them rather than this. I find this very difficult.

Would the kids be happier alive? Is that a given? Does living always mean greater than zero happiness? Perhaps the mother did not believe that living implies greater than zero happiness. Perhaps she believed that it is quite possible to lead an unhappy life, with less than zero happiness, and that by murdering her children they would be happier than living.

Considering the child from Hokkaido whose mother died and then whose father died saving her in a snowstorm, then, I know whose side I am on. If she believed that her children were happier dead, I think that the mother was very wrong.

Thinks.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites