4 family members murdered / Man kills wife, son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter with sledgehammer

The Yomiuri Shimbun
June 25, 2008
Source: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080625TDY02310.htm

CHIBA--A 77-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of killing four members of his family at their home in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, by bashing them with a sledgehammer, police said.

An elderly man called the police at about 7 a.m. Tuesday and claimed he had murdered his family. Police officers arrived at the house of Yoshio Kiuchi and found four members of the Kiuchi family bleeding from head injuries. Kiuchi, who reportedly had health problems, was found lying unconscious.

The victims are Kiuchi's 75-year-old wife, Tokiko; his 49-year-old son, Shigeru; Shigeru's 44-year-old wife, Miyuki; and Manami, the 4-year-old daughter of Shigeru and Miyuki.

According to the police, Kiuchi killed his wife with a sledgehammer while she was preparing breakfast in the kitchen between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., and then attacked Shigeru and Miyuki in a tatami-floored room. He then allegedly bludgeoned Manami to death on the second floor of an adjacent building.

The sledgehammer's handle was about one meter long, and the steel head was about 20 centimeters long, the police said. Kiuchi kept the sledgehammer in a shed.

The police found a bloodstained sledgehammer in the kitchen of the main building.

Kiuchi suffered no injuries, but his pajamas were blood-soaked, according to the police.

A 59-year-old relative of Kiuchi, who resides in the neighborhood, said, "I heard that Kiuchi had been in ill health, but I never thought something like this would happen."

The Kiuchi family's house is an area where houses are scattered amid paddy fields, about four kilometers southeast of JR Abiko Station. Kiuchi worked as a farmer until about 2000.

Kiuchi was quoted by the police as saying: "I'd had troubles with my family mainly due to my health problems. My wife had told me I was a nuisance, so I thought several times about killing her. When I got up this morning, I decided to go ahead and do it. I killed all my family members because I thought it would be a load off my shoulders."

The family's neighbors said they did not know of any problems with the family.

A 76-year-old woman sometimes talked with Tokiko at an elderly people's community group, saying: "She was a nice person. I hadn't noticed anything strange about her."

A 56-year-old female neighbor was stunned by the incident, saying, "We don't even get minor crimes like theft in our neighborhood, so this kind of brutal incident is very frightening."

A woman in the neighborhood said: "I heard Kiuchi had been bedridden due to heart trouble. He wasn't hospitalized, but he had been staying at home to recuperate and sometimes had to go to hospital."

(Jun. 25, 2008)

4 family members found dead in suspected murder-suicide bid

The Mainichi Shimbun
June 24, 2008
Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080624p2a00m0na008000c.html

KASHIWA, Chiba -- Four family members were found dead in their home on Tuesday morning, in what police suspect to be an attempted murder-suicide by the head of the family.

Tokiko Kiuchi, 75, her 49-year-old son Shigeru and his 44-year-old wife Miyuki, and the couple's 4-year-old daughter Manami were found dead at their home in Kashiwa, police said.

Tokiko's 77-year-old husband, Yoshio Kiuchi, was found in a state of shock and was taken to hospital, police said. Investigators suspect that Yoshio Kiuchi tried to commit murder-suicide and will question him over the incident.

According to police, a man called police from Kiuchi's home at around 7:05 a.m. on Tuesday, saying, "I killed all the members of my family." Police rushed to the scene and found the four members of the family dead.

There were traces of the four victims having been hit by something like a blunt object on their heads and other parts of their bodies, police said.

Investigators retrieved a blood-stained hammer from the kitchen of the main house, and Yoshio Kiuchi was found collapsed nearby in blood-stained clothes, police said.

The bodies of Tokiko, Shigeru and Miyuki were found in the main house, while Manami was found collapsed in pajamas on the second floor of an annex.

The door of the main house was not locked, but there was no trace of someone having intruded into the house from outside, according to police.

(Mainichi Japan) June 24, 2008