Woman in multiple murder case dies in jail
2012-12-12 14:01
Tokyo - A Japanese woman at the centre of a multiple murder
case who reportedly coerced people into starving family members to death has
been found dead in her cell, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Miyoko Sumida, aged 64, was the chief suspect in a probe
that has transfixed low-crime Japan since three decaying corpses were
discovered in an empty house where she once lived.
Sumida's lifeless body was found in bed in the cell she
shared with two others on Wednesday morning. A long-sleeve shirt was wrapped
tightly around her neck, a police spokesperson and media said.
Newspapers reported that she likely killed herself, quoting
her lawyer as saying that she had often said she wanted to die.
"An autopsy is now being undertaken on her body, and
police will decide if it was suicide or not after the autopsy," a police
spokesperson said.
Print media and television news programmes have offered
extensive coverage of the case since the gruesome find of three rotting bodies
at an empty house in Hyogo prefecture, west Japan, in October.
Six bodies in total
Another body encased in a concrete-filled drum was pulled
out of the sea west of Hyogo later that month as police said more people were
missing, presumed dead.
Sumida, the main suspect in the case, has been in custody
since early in the probe, which began last year shortly before the first body
was found.
A total of six bodies have been found, with police reported
to believe more will be uncovered as their investigation progresses.
Reports have said Sumida would approach strangers, initially
picking a quarrel with them before befriending them.
She would build a rapport that allowed her to exert enormous
control over her victims, which reports say escalated to the point where she
was able to move into the family home or have families go to live with her.
Sumida would then punish any who tried to escape by coercing
family members to inflict physical hardships on them, in some cases torturing
and starving people to death.
Several members of her own extended family are also in
custody in connection with the deaths.
