Male Inmate Arrested for 2004 Murder of Girl in Western Japan

May 30, 2018

Okayama- The police department of Okayama Prefecture arrested on Wednesday a man imprisoned for attempted murder, on suspicion of killing a nine-year-old girl in the western Japan prefecture 14 years ago.

The 39-year-old inmate, Kunihiko Katsuta, allegedly killed elementary school third-grader Yukiko Tsutsushio by choking the girl and stabbing her in the chest and stomach several times with a knife at her house in the city of Tsuyama around between 3:15 p.m. (6:15 a.m. GMT) and 3:35 p.m. on Sept. 3, 2004, investigative sources said.

Katsuta denied part of the allegations against him, according to the sources. He told the police that he did all other than stabbing her with a knife.

The Okayama police will investigate further details, including Katsuta's motive, by searching his home in the city of Kakogawa in Hyogo Prefecture, next to Okayama, and his car.

Upon returning from school, the girl's elder sister found her lying bleeding in a room on the first floor of their house in the city of Tsuyama, Okayama, around 3:35 p.m. on Sept. 3, 2004, according to the sources. She died shortly after being transported to a hospital, due to choking and blood loss.

There were several stab wounds on her chest, while the weapon used in the killing was not found at the crime scene. The girl is believed to have returned home from school around 3:15 p.m.

Katsuta and the victim apparently did not know each other, according to the sources.

Katsuta was arrested by the Hyogo prefectural police department in May 2015 for attempted murder as he stabbed a then junior high school third-grade girl on her way home in the chest and stomach in the city of Himeji, Hyogo. He was convicted in the case and is serving a prison term in the city of Okayama.

The Okayama police department had faced difficulties finding a person responsible for the murder of the nine-year-old girl although it mobilized a total of some 63,000 investigators.

Then, Katsuta emerged as a suspect after the police examined similar cases of crime targeting children.

Officers of the department met with Katsuta for the first time in September 2017, at the Okayama prison, to question him about his possible involvement in the September 2004 case. Questioning took place several times later.

"We will continue to fully investigate the case," keeping in mind the grief of bereaved relatives who lost their loved one, Hirohisa Murayama, chief of the Okayama police department's criminal investigation bureau, said at a press conference in Tsuyama on Wednesday.

"We feel very sorry for the bereaved family" as it took as long as 14 years to arrest the suspect, Masaaki, Sasaoka, a senior officer at the police department, said. Jiji Press