Police at the apartment building in Saitama. Photo: Kyodo
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https://scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3028167/japanese-man-arrested-after-stepson-9-found-dead-strangulation East Asia
Japanese man arrested after stepson, 9, is found dead with strangulation marks
- The body of Ryosuke Shindo was found at about 1am on Wednesday, about a day after his mother reported him missing
- The stepfather, Yusuke Shindo, had told his wife the boy went to an English class, but police determined he never made it there
The apartment building in Saitama where the body of Ryosuke Shindo was found. Photo: Kyodo
A man in Japan was arrested on Thursday in connection with the death of his nine-year-old stepson, a day after the child’s body was found in a flat building where they lived in Saitama, near Tokyo, police said.
The body of Ryosuke Shindo, bearing marks of strangulation, was found about 1am on Wednesday in a utility meter box opposite the family’s flat.
His 42-year-old mother, a teacher, had reported him missing on Tuesday evening, police said.
The man, Yusuke Shindo, 32, who was arrested on suspicion of abandoning the child’s body in the meter box, has hinted that he killed the boy, according to investigative sources.
Police said the man, who married the mother last December, has admitted to abandoning the body.
The unemployed stepfather told his wife that evening Ryosuke had gone to an English conversation school, but the boy did not return home at the expected time.
Police have since determined Ryosuke never arrived at the school and launched a murder investigation.
The child’s body was found clothed in a T-shirt and shorts but without shoes. An autopsy found that he died of suffocation.
According to a teacher, the Ryosuke loved learning English and attended a class once a week. The day before his body was found, he failed for the first time to come to the school that he had been attending since April.
The mother of one of his classmates said she was surprised to hear the man had been arrested, adding the meter box was often used by children playing hide-and-seek.
“I feel nothing but sympathy for the mother,” the 40-year-old woman said.
The flat complex is a housing facility for teachers located about 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) east of JR Omiya Station.
The case comes as Japan is grappling with a rise of abuse against children.
The National Police Agency reported in March that child guidance centres across Japan received 80,252 reports of suspected abuse in 2018, the 14th consecutive year that figures have increased since they were first collated in 2004.