All fingerprints at knifing site identified
Written by Writer on Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
All fingerprints at knifing site identified
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The assailant or assailants who fatally stabbed a former top health ministry bureaucrat and his wife Monday did not leave any fingerprints at the couple’s Saitama home, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
It also has been learned that a man impersonating a parcel deliveryman who stabbed the wife of another former top ministry bureaucrat at their house in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, on Tuesday, carried a box to the home’s entrance, apparently as part of his deception.
The Saitama prefectural police and the Metropolitan Police Department believe the assailant or assailants in both cases made meticulous preparations and took precautions not to leave any identifying traces behind.
Takehiko Yamaguchi, 66, former administrative vice minister for health and welfare, and his wife Michiko, 61, were found dead Tuesday. An autopsy established they died Monday evening.
According to a senior official of the Saitama prefectural police, Yamaguchi’s house has one intercom at the gate and another at the front door. However, the police were unable to detect fingerprints believed to belong to the perpetrator or perpetrators.
There were no fingerprints believed to be those of the attacker on the doorknobs of the front door, the senior official said, adding there was no indication that fingerprints had been wiped away.
The police collected 36 fingerprints around the house, but all are believed to be those of the couple, their relatives or acquaintances.
The couple’s wallets were left in the dining room but did not contain any bills. It is not known whether any money had been stolen, investigative sources said.
Meanwhile, Yasuko Yoshihara, the wife of a former administrative vice minister for health and welfare, has told the police that her attacker was holding a box when she opened the front door, according to a senior MPD official.
Yoshihara, 72, has regained consciousness at the hospital where she is recuperating.
She was quoted as telling the police that the suspect identified himself as a parcel deliveryman over the intercom. When she opened the door, the man stabbed her in her chest with a knife.
Though she said she had no memory of what had happened after that, she remembered the suspect was alone, the MPD official said.
Yoshihara reportedly said the suspect was wearing either a baseball cap or work hat and holding a box. He appeared to be 30 to 40 years old and was about 165 centimeters tall.
She reportedly ran inside the house to escape her attacker and later fled through the front door.
Bloody shoe prints believed to be those of the attacker were found in the entrance and also in the hall, dining room and living room of the house, according to MPD sources.
Yoshihara also suffered a stab wound on back, leading investigators to suspect the attacker chased her as she ran inside the house.
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Suspicious van seen nearby
Meanwhile, a suspicious young man was seen in a van in the Yoshiharas’ neighborhood about seven hours before the Tokyo stabbing Tuesday, it has been learned.
A man inside the van that was parked on the four-meter-wide road 130 meters from Yoshiharas’ home was watching the street, sources said.
MPD dogs lost the scent of the actual assailant about halfway between the Yoshihara house and the place where the van had been seen.
The police suspect the man was checking the area beforehand and might have eventually moved his van to the spot where the dogs lost the scent.
According to an MPD source, Yasuko was stabbed by a man at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the entrance to the home. The assailant’s bloody shoe prints start at this spot and continue about 70 meters down the street.
About seven hours before the attack, a woman in the neighborhood saw a parked van facing the Yoshiharas’ house on the street. The black or dark blue vehicle is believed to be an older model, according to the police sources.
Inside the vehicle, a man described by the woman as “younger than middle-aged” and wearing a baseball cap was observing the street.
The witness said she remembers the spot because the street is narrow there and the van was blocking traffic.
When the MPD searched the area with dogs from Tuesday night to Wednesday, the dogs lost the assailant’s scent at a point very close to where the shoe prints end.
Shortly after 6:30 p.m., several neighbors reported hearing a vehicle leaving the area at high speed.
(Nov. 22, 2008)
