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Police in Ota, Gunma Prefecture, have arrested a 31-year-old unemployed woman on suspicion of killing her seven-month-old daughter at their home in April 2020.
According to police, Runa Tanaka, who currently lives in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, is suspected of killing her eldest daughter, Kioka Furukawa, on April 23, 2020, at their former home in Ota City, Fuji TV reported. Police allege she suffocated Kioka by blocking her mouth and nose.
Tanaka called 119 and said she had found her daughter unconscious. The child was taken to hospital where she died. The hospital contacted police about a case of possible child abuse. The next day, Tanaka was accompanied by her husband to a police station where she admitted to killing Kioka.
Tanaka was not immediately arrested, pending a psychiatric examination. However, in June 2020, she was institutionalized after injuring herself at home. She was arrested on Monday this week following her release from the facility.
Police said Tanaka has told them she was suffering anxiety and stress over having to rear a child. Her husband told police he had seen no signs that his wife had ever abused Kioka. The couple has since divorced.
© Japan Today
17 Comments
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So sad..these stories break my heart. RIP little angel..
Toshihiro
These domestic violence on defenseless kids are just sickening to read. She could've surrendered the child.
Michael Machida
Who knows what goes on in the minds of people who are depressed. Deep depression is real and the person who has this has no mental ability to think. Logic is not part of their thought process. Scary. RIP.
thaonephil
This may seem cold from the husband or simple lack of interest from him, but I would be surprised if this was not common.
Gaijinjland
The poor child. I can’t imagine what the husband went through. I would say getting a divorce was the right move. Depression is real, and as much as I hate to say it, a depressed bipolar person in a manic state often has no recollection of what they did or where they were.
Tom Doley
Another day, another familial murder in Japan.
StevieJ
Sounds like a typical case of postpartum depression.
sir_bentley28
I've read too many of these since the beginning of this year so far! Why don't these new mothers get counceling or enrol in a mother training class to know to deal with your growing baby?
Gobshite
Hold on, what information is missing here
The word "eldest" suggests Kioka was not the last child this woman had, and suspicious minds would enquire what happened between June 2020 when she was locked up, and Monday this week when released.
Either she was pregnant when locked up, or somehow played hide the sausage in an institution, which even in this country should be frowned upon. Just saying....
murabito
I did not read the comment as blaming the husband for the crime, just that it is not easy for people with mental health problems to appear normal and happy, and not noticing it do not mean the husband was not attentive.
cleo
Nothing to be 'suspicious' about, except lazy translation.
They've simply translated 長女 (chojo, first-born daughter) as eldest daughter. If there are other daughters in the family it works, but not if the girl is the only daughter, or an only child.
If the translator had thought at all about the 7 months old bit, s/he should have realised the number problem and simply said daughter.
The English-speaking world doesn't put much store in sibling ranking anyway.
smithinjapan
So... she had another kid after murdering the first one, who was the eldest at seven months of age?
In any case, lock this woman up for life, and do it before she can touch the other child... if that's right... again. She obviously thought very carefully and realized that the stress of being in prison is not as bad as having a child, which clearly she should not have. Oh... wait... I forgot where we are; she'll likely get a year, max, because she has another child to take care of still. Wouldn't be the first time... and probably not the first time this week here, either.
kaimycahl
Depression is real, or should I say mental illness is real. The mind is very controlling an NO ONE knows what the mother was going through. You only read what she had done. You did not live in her home or walk in her shoes. No excuse but being a women in a male dominated society rearing a child, unemployed and having a husband who may have been just role playing and a salary man according to the article said she showed no signs of mental illness. IF what was said was true, that means he really paid little or no attention to his wife. I think in any relationship the signs are there, perhaps he worked to much to notice we don't know. All we know is the daughter is dead, the father gets a divorce and gets to start his life over and the mother goes to jails or a mental hospital to live with the guilt for the rest of her life. Sad and we will read another story like this.
John Noun
Awfully sad. How people can be so cruel