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Police in Fujieda, Shizuoka Prefecture, have arrested a 38-year-old woman on suspicion of killing her newborn daughter in December last year.
According to police, Akiko Awano killed the infant after giving birth in the toilet on the second floor of her home on the morning of Dec 18, Sankei Shimbun reported. At about 9:50 a.m., Awano called 119 and said her newborn child was dead. Police said an autopsy revealed that the child was alive after being born and believe that Awano killed her, without specifying the method.
Police did not say whether Awano, who was arrested on Saturday, has admitted to the charge or not. Awano lives in the house with seven relatives, including her husband, their four children and her husband's parents.
© Japan Today
13 Comments
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Vince Black
Everyone in the house should be held accountable. The husbands parents especially. They just ignored her and let her give birth?
The Japanese family unit is appalling. No wonder no one here wants to have kids.
smithinjapan
How much you want to bet she doesn't get three years, if even that?
Do the hustle
she will get three years, but it will be suspended because she has other kids to care for.
albaleo
And if she got three years, what good would that do? Would it make you feel safer?
gogogo
Ugly :(
Mirai Hayashi
No, but I am sure the family and kids will feel safer.
sensei258
I don't condone what she did, but I can understand how she felt. She was already taken care of seven people, and just couldn't handle one more.
Macoleco
How can you live with other 7 people in the house and have a baby in the toilet?
Did nobody notice? So weird man.
Wesley
We cannot judge because we don't know the whole story.
Like, who is the REAL father of the child? Weren't there anyone at home at that time?
What was she so afraid of ........ that made her want to kill an innocent baby?
Any prior mental problems?
Let's not be quick to shift the blame on her relatives.
Wesley
How do we know this? What makes you think she was taking care of seven people? Living in the same house doesn't necessarily means she was taking care of them. What about the husband? He needs to work to feed 7 people and put a roof over their heads.
sir_bentley28
So if she didn't admit to actually killing the baby, they arrested her without probable cause.
Maybe she didn't have the money to give birth in a proper facility and figured "I have 4 children! I got the hang of this!" and misunderstood the practices for childbirth which caused the child to die. In my job, we have to explore all different possibilities which lead to the outcome of whatever is presented before us instead of guessing.