/ 8 April 2002

Bodies of six babies found in closet in Japan

Tokyo, Monday

HOUSE cleaners have found six small bodies believed to be o babies, inside a closet at a vacated apartment room in eastern Japan, police said on Monday.

”It is true that there was such a case,” a police representative said, referring to news reports that the almost skeletal corpses had been found Sunday in the city of Toda, north-east of Tokyo.

According to the Jiji Press news agency, a 58-year-old woman has told the police the bodies were her babies, and that she had delivered the last of them more than 10 years ago.

The agency added that the skulls were as small as the clenched fist of an adult.

Five bodies were in a plastic bag, while the remaining one was in a plastic box designed for storing clothes, it said.

Police are looking for the former occupants of the room, who moved out in late March, the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.

Reports said that a husband and wife in their 30s — the wife being the daughter of the 58-year-old woman — and their two children used to live in the apartment.

The wife’s mother and younger brother later joined the family, it said.

The real estate company managing the apartment demanded the contract with them be cancelled because their rents were delayed, the Yomiuri said.

The brother reportedly told the company when he left: ”Please dispose of the remaining goods in the room as I cannot handle them alone.” – Sapa_AFP