L.A. police try to figure out Miura’s motive
Written by Writer on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
L.A. police try to figure out Miura’s motive
Compiled from Kyodo, AP
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Department said Saturday it is unknown why businessman Kazuyoshi Miura killed himself the day before and investigators were looking for a suicide note or other evidence indicating his motive.
The Los Angeles County Department of the Coroner said an autopsy was planned for Sunday to determine the precise cause of death.
Miura, 61, was being detained in Los Angeles on a murder conspiracy charge over the slaying of his wife in Southern California in the early 1980s. He had been brought Friday to Los Angeles from Saipan where he had been detained. He had been acquitted of murder in the case in Japan.
“It was apparent that the murder suspect, alone in his cell, had used a piece of his shirt as a makeshift ligature around his neck,” Charlie Beck, chief of detectives for the L.A. Police Department, said at a news conference at police headquarters.
Beck said guards had checked on Miura only 10 minutes before he was found dead at 9:45 p.m. Officers rushed into the cell and gave him cardiopulmonary resuscitation while medical workers were summoned. Miura did not respond to treatment and was pronounced dead at USC Medical Center, Beck said.
He said the death will be investigated by the police department’s Force Investigation Division, and results will be reviewed by the police chief, inspector general and the L.A. Police Commission.
Those who saw Miura shortly after his arrival from Saipan said there was no hint he was planning to commit suicide, and authorities saw no reason to put him on suicide watch.
The development stunned many, including the Japanese Consul General in California, Masara Dekiba, who spent 15 minutes with Miura on Friday morning and said he looked fine.
Miura even asked Dekiba to tell jailers that he was allergic to fried foods and requested an international phone call to his current wife.
“Why Mr. Miura killed himself I do not know,” Dekiba said.
Beck appeared at the news conference with Rick Jackson, a police investigator who tracked Miura for decades. Both appeared downcast, and Beck described themselves as “shocked and disappointed.”
“This was not what we had envisioned for this case,” Beck said.
Miura’s family released a statement saying, “We are saddened and at a loss to understand how a situation like this could happen, and feel that the former (company) president should at least have been protected while in custody.”
