Police in Tokyo's Ota Ward received an emergency call on Sunday at around 10 a.m. from the mother of a 3-year-old girl who said that her daughter had stopped breathing. The child, whom police have identified as Megumi Inoue, was taken to hospital after suffering a cardiopulmonary arrest and was later pronounced dead.
According to police, Megumi had been living with her mother and her mother's boyfriend, who moved in at the end of last year. Megumi's mother was visiting her parents in Kagawa for a few days and the child had been under the care of the mother's boyfriend.
A red mark was found on Megumi's head, police said. Her mother's boyfriend was quoted by police as saying it was a burn mark and claimed that she had been suffering from a high fever since the day before she died. Other bruise-like marks were found on Megumi's upper body, police said.
Police intend to question the man further after an autopsy is held.
© Compiled from news reports
13 Comments
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Okinawamike
POS, if you are the one. You should suffer like she did.
RIP little Megumi.
TSRnow
Mother's boyfriend...
Why do I feel that when these things happen, complicated families are one of the reasons?
IfeelImust
My 3 year old son is covered in bruises all as a result of being an active 3 year old, lets not be too quick to jump to conclusions here. RIP little Magumi.
smithinjapan
TSRnow: "Why do I feel that when these things happen, complicated families are one of the reasons?"
People find reasons to make things complicated -- that is to say, they AREN'T always complicated, but we want it to be to find more reason for what happened (when there's none). I probably don't need to remind you of the number of cases last year where seemingly normal parents (mothers, mostly) killed their children while dad was away for the work day (or night).
RIP, little girl. And it should be pretty easy even for the J-cops to figure out what happened on this one.
Harry_Gatto
I find it strange that the mother did not take the child to visit her parents, most grandparents would have insisted on that. Anywhere in Kanagawa is not so far from Ota-ku.
goddog
Little kids do get cuts and bruises as they are active. The burn mark thing needs looking into though. Why didn't the dude take the kid to the doctor or at least call the mother when the kid had the so called fever?
jason6
Wow, shameless try! Somebody should make him suffer a high fever before he dies.
dolphingirl
A red mark on her head, bruises on her upper body and she died of cardiopulmonary arrest?! Poor child. It certainly sounds like a case of abuse to me. Did the mother arrive home just as the girl stopped breathing? RIP Megumi.
Tom DeMicke
A sad story for the family. Sorry to read of this news. Rest in Peace little one...
DS
Great illustration of why having a "live in" boygirlfriend is a really really bad idea for a single parent. If you want to date, that is fine, but a shack up is a recipe for trouble. Your kids shouldn't be involved in your romantic life at all. Especially, you don't leave your child alone with an unrelated person for days at a time! At least take her along to visit her grandparents. Poor girl, to be stuck with such an irresponsible and selfish mother.
TSRnow
Smithinjapan: "They aren't always complicated"
I would agree if I were in the States or somewhere, but it's Japan, and blood is pretty important. As you say, if some people can't even love their own child, how can people expect to have a stranger (non-blood relative) love them 100%?
I still don't know the details of this article, so I'm not thinking as far as DS, but it's bugging me...
MiniAiko
Toddlers get bruises all the time, due to the fact that kids fall and topple all over the place. They run around and play, and sometimes they get bruises. But, what can be looked into is the condition of the bruises. How many are there and are they in any awkward spots that couldn't be formed by falling. Like, on the inner thigh or around her neck. Those are places that you usually don't bump against the ground from time to time. The burn mark is extremely suspicious in my eyes and the fact that the boyfriend didn't call the mom or a docter is even more suspicious. I hear about these sort of cases all the time, and it gets to be very depressing. If little Megumi's death is found to be the fault of an abuser, there is no doubt in my mind that that man should be taken to court. But, this also seems to be the error of the mom. She obviously brought a dangerous person into poor Megumi's life and wasn't there to make sure her daughter was alright. You should never leave your young daughter in the care of someone you can't completely trust. If it was a grandparent, a daycare or a husband, it is completely responsible. But, how long did she know this man before she left her child with him? Obviously, I may be sounding harsh, but you have to take these precautions when dealing with a sensitive case such as this one.
RIP Megumi
luilui
reading this made me feel sad and angry at the same time. way too young to die :-( investigate investigate!