OMEN
10-19-2007, 03:52 PM
Tokyo - Japanese police said on Friday they arrested a woman who allegedly buried her toddler's body in cement.
Police arrested Yuko Hamano, 30, and her boyfriend Masakatsu Takagi, 48, on Thursday on charges of abandoning the body of the woman's 18-month-old son, Kyotaro, police said.
"Hamano told police that the baby collapsed at home some time around March last year and she thought he was dead," said a police spokesperson in western Kyoto prefecture.
"She then laid the body in a plastic box and poured cement in it," he said.
News reports said that Hamano initially put the body in the closet, but she decided three days later to bury it in concrete after the corpse began to smell.
Police have ordered an autopsy. They said they had not determined how the child died and did not know why Hamano didn't take him to a hospital.
Takagi allegedly helped Hamano move the concrete block containing the body from her apartment to a condominium of one of his acquaintances.
Takagi told police that he helped his girlfriend remove the body because she also had two daughters, aged four and 13, who would have "felt bad" to know their little brother died, Jiji Press said.
Police grew suspicious and interrogated the couple after a tip that the baby had not been seen for some time.
AFP
Police arrested Yuko Hamano, 30, and her boyfriend Masakatsu Takagi, 48, on Thursday on charges of abandoning the body of the woman's 18-month-old son, Kyotaro, police said.
"Hamano told police that the baby collapsed at home some time around March last year and she thought he was dead," said a police spokesperson in western Kyoto prefecture.
"She then laid the body in a plastic box and poured cement in it," he said.
News reports said that Hamano initially put the body in the closet, but she decided three days later to bury it in concrete after the corpse began to smell.
Police have ordered an autopsy. They said they had not determined how the child died and did not know why Hamano didn't take him to a hospital.
Takagi allegedly helped Hamano move the concrete block containing the body from her apartment to a condominium of one of his acquaintances.
Takagi told police that he helped his girlfriend remove the body because she also had two daughters, aged four and 13, who would have "felt bad" to know their little brother died, Jiji Press said.
Police grew suspicious and interrogated the couple after a tip that the baby had not been seen for some time.
AFP