Feath
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"I am very sorry for what happened, because my aunt was a nice person who often cooked meals for me," Nobuhiko Takahashi told police when they came to arrest him in the Japanese village of Hirata, Fukushima. "In fact, she was a saint, but our family undertaking business was strapped for cash, and the bank was threatening to close us down, so action was needed. I thought that if I killed Auntie Chiyoko, who was a very wealthy woman, then my company would be asked to conduct a lavish funeral for her, and we would be saved from ruin. So I broke into her house and beat her to death with a golf club and a lavatory brush, but I only did it to protect the honour of my family. I thought that the suicide note I faked would convince everyone,
but I see now that I made a basic mistake by signing my own name at the end of it."
Later, a police spokesman explained that they had initially treated the death of Chikoko Shiga, 77, as suicide. "But in January, our suspicions turned to the Takahashi funeral parlour, when we discovered that it was on the verge of bankruptcy. Funerals in Japan are always very expensive, usually well in excess of US$20,000. Mrs Shiga's one was likely to cost far more than that, and Nobuhiko Takahashi has admitted to us that he simply could not resist the temptation. But sadly for him, her next-of-kin chose a rival undertaker to conduct the funeral, so his business went bust anyway. And then someone checked the suicide note again..."
Weekend Australian, 11/2/2004
South China Morning Post, 12/2/2004
but I see now that I made a basic mistake by signing my own name at the end of it."
Later, a police spokesman explained that they had initially treated the death of Chikoko Shiga, 77, as suicide. "But in January, our suspicions turned to the Takahashi funeral parlour, when we discovered that it was on the verge of bankruptcy. Funerals in Japan are always very expensive, usually well in excess of US$20,000. Mrs Shiga's one was likely to cost far more than that, and Nobuhiko Takahashi has admitted to us that he simply could not resist the temptation. But sadly for him, her next-of-kin chose a rival undertaker to conduct the funeral, so his business went bust anyway. And then someone checked the suicide note again..."
Weekend Australian, 11/2/2004
South China Morning Post, 12/2/2004
