Young couple arrested after infant's body found

The Japan Times
Friday, May 18, 2007
Source: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070518a2.html

OSAKA (Kyodo) A young couple from Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, were arrested early Thursday on suspicion of abandoning the body of the woman's 1-year-old child, prefectural police said.

The arrest of Mika Tamiya, 21, and her husband Motoki, 21, comes just a day after police identified the boy as Yu Minematsu, whose body was found in April in the gutter of a road in Nose, Osaka Prefecture, police said. Mika, who had the child in a previous marriage, was identified as the mother via DNA analysis.

Police said the couple surfaced as suspects after a child care center in Osaka told them it had gotten a call in January from a woman with the same name as the arrested mother.

"I can't raise (my boy) anymore. Isn't there anything like a baby hatch?" the center quoted her as saying.

The couple have owned up to the charge and told investigators the boy died after they left him in the helmet compartment of a motorcycle while playing pachinko for hours at a parlor near the end of January, the police said.

The two told the police they "put the boy in the motorcycle helmet compartment because two people can't ride while holding a child."

After Motoki returned to the motorcycle and found the boy dead, they bought plastic bags at a discount store, returned home and put the boy in one of the bags, the couple was quoted as saying.

Later, the couple took the body to Nose, a small town surrounded by mountains, and dumped it on the side of a road, the police said. A passerby who found the body alerted police on April 23.

The body was naked and its head was in a blue plastic bag, the police said. There were no external injuries.

But the couple's accounts differ on the date of the dumping, police said. Motoki said they did it Feb. 2, but Mika said it was Jan. 31.

In addition, an autopsy has found Yu likely died in mid-April.

The Japan Times
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Couple arrested over abandoning body of son, 1

The Yomiuri Shimbun
May 18, 2007
Source: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070518TDY02008.htm

A 21-year-old woman and her husband were arrested early Thursday on suspicion of abandoning the body of the woman's 1-year-old son in a ditch along a street in the mountains in Nosecho, Osaka Prefecture, police said.

Mika Tamiya of Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, and her husband, Motoki, 21, allegedly abandoned the body of Yu Minematsu in mid-April. The boy's body was found naked, according to the police.

According to the investigation, the couple claimed to have put the boy into a storage space for a helmet under the seat of a motorbike on Jan. 31 while Tamiya went shopping and her husband played pachinko in Toyonaka. The couple said the boy was dead in the storage space when they came back to the motorcycle.

They then bought a garbage bag at a nearby store and put the boy's body in the bag before carrying it by car to abandon it in the mountains, the police said.

The couple told the police they disposed of the motorcycle after the boy died.

The police suspect the couple tried to destroy the evidence and will question them further.

According to sources, the husband had a large motorcycle with storage space for two helmets under its seat.

Meanwhile, a child consultation center in Osaka was informed in early February that the boy may have been being abused.

An autopsy estimated that the boy died in mid-April, but Tamiya told the police she and her partner abandoned his body on Jan. 31, while her husband said it was Feb. 2.

According to the police, Tamiya divorced her former husband at the beginning of last year and moved with her son to her parents' house in Yodogawa Ward, Osaka. Her father asked Yodogawa Police Station to search for his daughter on Jan. 15 as she was missing.

The police found her in the home of her second husband's parents in Toyonaka on Monday.

(May. 18, 2007)

Couple says infant died after they placed him in motorbike's helmet container

The Mainichi Shimbun
May 17, 2007
Source: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070517p2a00m0na007000c.html

NOSE, Osaka -- A couple under arrest for dumping the body of the wife's infant son has told investigators that the victim died after they placed him in the helmet container under the seat, police said.

Mika Tamiya, 21, and her husband, 21-year-old Motoki, were arrested in the predawn hours of Thursday for dumping the body of 1-year-old Yu Minematsu, who was born to the woman and her former husband.

"We went out on a motorcycle. Since we couldn't hold Yu, we placed him in the helmet storage space (under the motorcycle's seat). We later found him dead," one of the suspects was quoted as saying during questioning.

"We then put his body in a plastic bag we had bought from a nearby retail store, and brought it to Nose where we dumped it," one of them reportedly said.

The couple left their home in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, on a motorcycle in late January this year, after putting Yu in the vehicle's helmet storage space under its seat, investigators said. Mika subsequently went shopping while Motoki went to a pachinko parlor.

Motoki returned to the motorcycle and found Yu dead in the helmet storage space, investigators said.

Mika divorced Yu's father sometime around January last year and remarried Motoki on April 23, according to local police.

On Jan. 15, Mika fled from her parents' home where she was living at the time with her son and her family submitted a missing person's report on them.

Police conducted a DNA test on her and confirmed on Wednesday that her DNA matched Yu's DNA.

Initially, Mika had claimed that she had entrusted a friend with her son. Motoki had also denied any involvement in the case.

A passer-by found Yu lying dead in a ditch along Route 173 in Nose at around 5 p.m. on April 23, his second birthday and the day when Mika and Motoki registered their marriage. (Mainichi)

May 17, 2007

Couple arrested for dumping body of baby boy

Japan Today
Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 06:56 EDT
Source: http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/406834

OSAKA — Police arrested a young couple early Thursday on suspicion of abandoning the body of a boy who was recently identified as a 1-year-old from Toyonaka in the prefecture. The arrest of Mika Tamiya, 21, and her husband Motoki, comes just a day after police identified the boy as Yu Minematsu, whose body was found in a roadside gutter in the town of Nose in the prefecture last month, they said.

The two have both admitted to the charge. Mika was identified to be the boy's mother through a DNA analysis, they said. The two told the police they "put the boy in a space to hold helmets on a motorcycle because two people cannot go out on a bike while holding a child." They said the boy was dead when they returned, according to police. The body was naked, with its head in a blue plastic bag, police said. It had no external injuries and an autopsy also failed to pinpoint the cause of the boy's death.

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