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Police said Thursday that the remains of a girl missing for seven years were found in a dense grove near Kotakemachi in Fukuoka Prefecture.
The case came to light in September when police questioned the girl's 27-year-old mother over the fate of her daughter after the school in which she was enrolled reported that the child had not attended school even once.
At that time, the woman was incoherent, saying only that she disposed of her daughter’s body in the town of Kotakemachi, Fuji TV reported.
However, police said Thursday that the woman finally admitted that not very long after her daughter was born, she got very sick and died at home. "I couldn't stand the dreadful sight of her lifeless body, so I decided to hide her body in the forest," she was quoted as saying.
This information led police to conduct a search for the girl's body. Small fragments of bone believed to be pieces of a human skull were discovered last month. The discovered fragments matched that of a young girl only a few years old, fitting the description of the missing girl, and after a series of DNA tests, they were confirmed to belong to the missing child, Fuji TV reported.
Police said the family registry, kept by the municipal government, showed the birth of the daughter, and that the woman, a single mother, lived in Sawara Ward, Fukuoka.
School officials said that the mother completed enrollment procedures for her daughter in April 2012 but the child never attended. When a school official tried to contact the mother, another person was living in the Sawara Ward residence. The school notified police who found the woman living in Minami Ward.
Police suspect that the woman enrolled her daughter at school to give the impression that the child was still alive.
© Japan Today
9 Comments
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papigiulio
So they found a body of a 7 year old but the mom said her daughter died right after she was born. Either way, shocking how a parent can be so remorseless. Your own child ffs
rickyvee
so this lady kept up the charade of having a daughter for 7 years? to collect the child welfare benefit of 13,000 yen a month? and just now got caught?
inakaRob
JAIL please! fair use of my tax dollars!
Disillusioned
Her daughter got sick and died at home? Bullshit!!! This whacko single mum killed the kid and dumped her in the forest.
Alex Einz
I suggest making her very sick and dumping her in the forest... jail for that is NOT a fair use of my tax money, besides she had enough from child support already.
Get Real
What a godawful, lonely existence some people live.
A child dies in a big city, yet no-one cares. Too sad for words.
Justusleague
So where was daddy? It absolutely makes me cringe to view that giant plot hole that somehow people overlook, as if she made the baby all on her own. And don't tell me he did not know or had no idea he might become a father. Condoms don't just quietly sneak out the door like ninjas, and even if they did, you would or SHOULD notice it is missing. And don't bore me with rarities like she put holes in the condom or lied about birth control. 99 percent of men oblivious to being fathers were just not paying attention, which is a thing I call "negligence". Yet its always the mother who gets all the blame. Start saddling these guys with charges of negligence and sit back and watch a little thing I call "responsibility" start taking root. And along with it, a lot fewer stories like this.
Howaitosan
The child died 7 years ago; the body discovered was "a few years old" - which means about 3 or 4; the mother is 27. Do the math; she had the child when she was about 16 or 17.
I echo Justusleague's question; where is the father? More to the point, where are the mother's parents? Lots of questions here and few answers so far.
StormR
Another one with undiagnosed mental illness, how can a parent let / do something like this to their child baffles me.
How about some checks and balances be put in place for those with children, maybe a bi annual health check for the child or something, and if the child and parent don't show up the authorities are alerted. It would at least help to identify child abuse a little earlier if nothing else.