Photo/Illutration Kenji Murakami, the head of the Aichi prefectural police’s criminal investigation department, speaks at a news conference on Oct. 31. (Shigetaka Kodama)

NAGOYA—The dogged perseverance of a widower for nearly three decades has helped police arrest a suspect in the murder of his wife.

Satoru Takaba, 69, preserved the crime scene by spending about 22 million yen ($143,000) over 26 years on rent for the apartment where his wife, Namiko, was slashed to death in November 1999.

Along with others, Takaba also lobbied the central government to revise a law to eliminate the statute of limitations for heinous crimes such as murder.

The law was revised in 2010, and Aichi prefectural police continued with the murder investigation.

On Oct. 31, police announced that Kumiko Yasufuku, 69, had been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Police said she turned herself in on the previous day.

Aichi police had questioned Yasufuku on a voluntary basis since earlier this year and asked her a number of times to submit a DNA sample, according to investigative sources.

After her long refusal, she agreed to provide a sample in October.

An analysis determined her DNA was the same as the blood found in the apartment, the sources said. 

“I was surprised, and the most I could do was try to take in the news,” Takaba told The Asahi Shimbun after the arrest.

Aichi police contacted Takaba at around 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 31 and explained that an arrest would be made.

Sources said Yasufuku was a senior high school classmate of Takaba, but he said he had no recollection of her and just wanted her to talk to police about the motive for the crime.

According to police, Namiko was stabbed a number of times around the neck area on Nov. 13, 1999, at the family’s apartment in Nishi Ward.

Satoru had left for work. The couple’s then 2-year-old son was also at the apartment but was not hurt in the attack.

A DNA analysis of blood left at the crime scene and footprints led police to believe the suspect was a woman between 40 and 60. They pinpointed her blood type and shoe size.

Aichi police officials said the fact that Satoru had preserved the apartment would continue to be helpful in solving the crime.

Initially, Satoru thought about canceling the apartment contract.

But three years after his wife’s death, an expert who visited the apartment as part of a TV program raised the possibility that some of the blood in the apartment may have been from the killer.

Until then, Satoru believed the blood was Namiko’s. However, Aichi police confided in him that they could not tell him whose blood it was because that was a fact only the perpetrator would know.

Realizing there were many things about the crime scene that he did not know, Satoru decided to continue paying rent to maintain the apartment for a possible future investigation.

He said he wants the police to bring the suspect to the apartment to explain what happened.

(This article was written by Shun Noguchi and Toshinari Takahashi.)

Related News