Overview
- Aichi police arrested Kumiko Yasufuku, 69, on October 31 on suspicion of fatally stabbing Namiko Takaha, 32, in her Nagoya apartment in 1999.
- Investigators report she posed as a beverage salesperson, urged a taste to get the door opened, and attacked with a knife, with a drink found at the scene and signs the victim was not expecting a visitor.
- She reportedly told the victim’s husband, a high school classmate she had reconnected with months earlier, that she wanted him to understand the burden of child-rearing, then later stopped cooperating.
- Sources say she said she disposed of the weapon and injured her hand during the attack, and the victim’s two-year-old son in the living room was unharmed.
- Nagoya prosecutors have placed her in psychiatric detention to evaluate criminal responsibility, and investigators say parts of her account remain unexplained.