Crime & Courts

47-Year-Old Man Arrested over Chiba Hotel Murder-Robbery

The Yomiuri Shimbun
A hotel where a woman’s body was found is seen in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, on Nov. 1.

Jiji Press

12:54 JST, November 14, 2024

Ichihara, Chiba Pref., Nov. 14 (Jiji Press) — Japanese police have arrested a 47-year-old man on suspicion of robbery and murder of a hotel worker in the city of Ichihara in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo.

The suspect, Atsushi Egawa, a corporate worker living in the city, was apprehended Wednesday and has admitted to the charges, according to investigators.

Egawa allegedly killed 56-year-old Hitomi Saeki, who was working at a hotel in Ichihara’s Nakatakane district, between around 11:50 p.m. on Oct. 31 and around 7:25 a.m. the following day, and stole about ¥12,000 in cash from the front desk.

Saeki was working alone from the night of Oct. 31, and was discovered collapsed and bleeding by the hotel manager who came to work the following morning, the investigators said. A knife believed to be the murder weapon was recovered at the scene of the crime.

An autopsy revealed that the likely cause of Saeki’s death was suffocation from strangulation or hemorrhagic shock from being cut at the throat and elsewhere.