OITA, Japan (Kyodo) — A 35-year-old woman who was arrested Sunday for allegedly dumping the body of her 2-year-old daughter in southwestern Japan’s Oita Prefecture last September has told police she did not kill the girl, investigators said Monday.
Yuko Emoto is suspected of abandoning the body of her daughter Kotone around last Sept. 13 in a thicket in the town of Hiji in Oita. Police found bone fragments believed to be those of the girl Sunday in the woods, some 3 kilometers east of Emoto’s home, after the mother turned herself in, they said.
Emoto, who was sent to prosecutors Monday afternoon, reported to the police Sunday after confessing to her 34-year-old husband Masamichi that she had left Kotone’s body in the thicket.
She told investigators she had hid the daughter’s body as she got upset after finding the child dead at home, they added.
Police had questioned Emoto on a voluntary basis several times before arresting her. They do not suspect the mother physically abused the daughter.
Investigators searched Monday the wooded area for items left by Kotone. They will search Emoto’s home Tuesday to try to find out how the daughter died, police said.
Police confirmed that Kotone was last witnessed by a third party on Sept. 9, when a teacher at an elementary school which Emoto’s son attends saw her. Around the same time, Kotone’s grandmother talked to the girl over the phone.
Emoto called the police shortly before 2 p.m. last Sept. 13, saying Kotone disappeared from a car parked at a supermarket in Hiji while she was shopping there.
The husband is believed to have been away from home on business between Sept. 4 and 13.
