Ex-official, wife fatally stabbed / Knifing of 2nd pension official’s wife sparks serial attack fears
Written by Meenaa on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
Ex-official, wife fatally stabbed / Knifing of 2nd pension official’s wife sparks serial attack fears
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Inspectors examine an area in front of the house in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, where Yasuko Yoshihara was stabbed Tuesday.
A former senior health official and his wife were found stabbed to death at their home in Minami Ward, Saitama, at about 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, only hours before the wife of another former health official was attacked and seriously injured at her home in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, police said.
The prefectural police and the Metropolitan Police Department have launched an investigation into whether a serial attacker is targeting former health officials.
Police suspect that former administrative vice minister for health and welfare Takehiko Yamaguchi, 66, and his wife Michiko, 61, were stabbed to death with a knife at their Saitama home.
The Saitama prefectural police has begun investigating the case as a double murder and has established a special headquarters.
In the Tokyo attack, Yasuko Yoshihara, 72, the wife of Kenji Yoshihara, 76, another former administrative vice health and welfare minister and the former director general of the Social Insurance Agency, sustained serious injuries at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday when she was stabbed after opening her front door to a man pretending to be from a parcel delivery service.
According to senior officers of the prefectural police, the Yamaguchis were found by a neighbor lying next to each other inside the entrance of their house.
The couple lived in a residential area about 500 meters northwest of JR Musashi-Urawa Station.
The police had not discovered the weapon used in the attack as of 7 p.m., but said the couple had suffered abdominal and chest wounds.
The neighbor had spotted blood flowing beneath the front door, which was not locked when investigators arrived, according to the police.
Police said some of the blood on the floor had congealed and rigor mortis had set in when the neighbor found the bodies, leading them to conclude that at least several hours had passed from the time the couple died until they were found.
Investigation headquarters officials said they believe the couple was murdered sometime between Monday evening and Tuesday morning.
The police will perform an autopsy on the couple Wednesday morning to try to determine the exact cause and time of their deaths.
The couple were found wearing casual clothes and no shoes. The state of their clothing seemed to indicate no struggle had occurred, the police said.
Yamaguchi entered the then Health and Welfare Ministry in 1965.
After serving as director general of the minister’s secretariat and as head of the health insurance bureau, he was appointed as administrative vice minister in November 1996, after his predecessor, Nobuharu Okamitsu, resigned over a bribery scandal. Yamaguchi left the ministry in August 1999.
Yoshihara served as administrative vice health and welfare minister from 1988 to 1990.
Yamaguchi and Yoshihara both had served as the head of the pension bureau and were know as experts in pension affairs.
(Nov. 19, 2008)
