Tokyo Metropolitan Police Arrest Couple for Daughter's Murder
Crime Committed with Common-Law Partner Aiming for Parental Management Rights
The daughter of the victim couple has been identified as the perpetrator in the Japanese 'Couple Corpse Dismemberment Case.' This case previously drew attention domestically as a Japanese actor who started as a child actor and a Korean young man were arrested as the 'executors' of a contract killing.
The victim couple, Ryutaro Takarajima (55) and Sachiko Takarajima (56), operated about ten restaurants in the bustling Ueno area of Tokyo. They were found burned along the riverside in Nasumachi, a small village in Tochigi Prefecture about 150 km north of Tokyo, between April 15 and 16.
The couple was murdered in a garage of an abandoned house in Tokyo, where an electric cord believed to be the murder weapon and a hammer stained with the victims' blood were found. Japanese police believe the suspects strangled the couple with the electric cord or struck them with the hammer, then attempted to cover up the crime scene using a high-pressure washer and other means.
Five days after the incident, the police arrested Ryoken Hirayama (25) and Hikaru Sasaki (28). Based on their statements and evidence, further investigation led to the arrest of Korean Kang Kwang-gi (20) and former child actor Kirato Wakayama (20) as the actual 'executors' of the crime.
All four suspects had no prior acquaintance with the victim couple, and Kang and Wakayama were not close enough to even know each other's real names, raising the possibility of a multi-level contract killing scheme in Japan.
The police revealed that an unidentified client commissioned Sasaki to commit the crime for 15 million yen. Sasaki kept 1 million yen and subcontracted the crime to Hirayama, who took 9 million yen and paid Kang and Wakayama 2.5 million yen each (approximately 21.78 million KRW) to carry out the murder.
On the 27th, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested Manami Takarajima (31), the murdered couple's daughter, on suspicion of murder. Manami denies the charges, but the police believe she commissioned the murder to monopolize the management rights of the restaurants.
Earlier, on the 7th of last month, Seiha Sekine (32), who was in a de facto marital relationship with Manami, was arrested. The police found that Sekine, who worked as a restaurant manager and had many grievances against the victim couple, conspired with Manami to commission Sasaki and Hirayama to commit the murder.
Initially, the police did not consider the daughter a suspect and regarded her as a victim. However, decisive evidence came from Sekine's smartphone, where Manami sent messages such as "I will get rid of both of them" and "I will make sure they can't walk."
The police believe that the couple, Manami and Sekine, planned the crime to seize the restaurant management rights from the parents. Manami was a director of the food service corporation run by her parents but resigned in January. After her parents were murdered, she became the CEO of the corporation just one month later.
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