Police in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, arrested a 51-year-old unemployed man on Friday for the suspected murder of his 41-year-old former girlfriend and her 76-year-old mother last month. Teruyuki Sugihira, from Sakai City, admitted stabbing Yuka Murakami and hinted at killing her mother Kazuko on April 8. The pair had dated for over eight years until around March this year.
The victims, Yuka Murakami, a 41-year-old hospital social worker, and her 76-year-old mother Kazuko, were found relentlessly stabbed at their apartment in Izumi. They suffered stab wounds to the neck, at least a dozen on the head and back, plus self-defense injuries. Yuka also had bruises on her cheek, police said.
A male relative, alerted by Yuka's workplace that she had not shown up, discovered the bodies around 12:30 p.m. on April 8. Kazuko was in the living room and Yuka near the kitchen; both wore pajamas. The entrance was unlocked, with bloody footprints nearby, but no weapon or stolen valuables.
Autopsies placed the time of death around 4 a.m. Yuka's car dashcam showed her returning home at about 5:40 p.m. on April 7. Security footage captured a man resembling Sugihira loitering near the house in the early hours of April 8.
Police quoted Sugihira as saying, “I first stabbed Yuka multiple times in the neck and other areas with a knife I brought.” Investigators said Sugihira had borrowed about 1.5 million yen from Yuka, as reported by Kyodo News and TBS.