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A 44-year-old woman and her 11-year-old son were found dead at their home in Nishi-Tokyo in an apparent murder-suicide, police said Saturday.
According to police, the bodies were found at around 10:30 p.m. Friday by the woman's 40-year-old husband upon his return home, Fuji TV reported.
Police said it appeared the boy had been strangled and his mother had hanged herself. Both bodies were on the second floor of the family's home. The boy was lying face-up on a futon, and his mother was found hanging by a thin rope in a walk-in closet in the same room.
The house showed no signs of having been broken into. Police believe the woman killed her son and then hanged herself, and are questioning her husband to try and find out why she might have done such a thing.
© Japan Today
9 Comments
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Mike O'Brien
But first off this wasn't you, and secondly (and this is pure speculation) the mother could have put something in her sons food to sedate him.
Nice job stereotyping half of the population. And most mothers don't kill their children.
Data shows an average 11 year old Japanese boy is 145.7 cm and 38.9 kg. While the average 44 year old Japanese woman is 158.9 cm and 52.4 kg. That means on average she would be 13 cm taller and almost 14 kg heavier
sensei258
Sad for all concerned. For the mother who felt she must, for the son whose last view was of his mother choking him, and for the father who walked in on that scene and will suffer for a long time.
Nobusaki
I m not surprised that another parent decided to take their child's life.
Disillusioned
so, where are all the postnatal stress sympathisers? A mother kills her 11 year old son and people get angry, but a mother kills a two month old baby and people give her sympathy. It's the same thing to me! However, you have to wonder about the situation that brought this on. Was it because of the father? Was the boy handicapped? Or, most obviously, was the mother a homicidal loon?
Monozuki
The chances were that the poor boy had some physical and/or mental defect. So that he couldn't shake himself free from his mother's grasp. RIP.
Wc626
11 years old. That's old enough to resist and put up a good struggle. (At least when I was 11.) And most Japanese mothers are shy, thin and tiny. Some other circumstances exist in this case.
Mirai Hayashi
@Wc626
My guess is that the boy was is either mentally or physically impaired. Probably the reason why she strangled him; the usual "I didn't have confidence is his future" nonsense these killer mothers give to justify their own shortcomings.
Peter Qinghai
Becoming all too common. The Health Ministry really needs to step up and make mental illness less stigmafying.
Dan Joseph
Welcome home Dad , :-(