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The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has indicted a 46-year-old man on murder and arson charges after he allegedly killed his ex-wife and three children and then set fire to the house where they all lived.
According to the indictment, on May 22, Yusuke Goto stabbed his ex-wife Fuyumi Takanami, 37, and her second daughter, Rei Goto, 3, with a kitchen knife at Takanami’s home in Shinagawa Ward, and then set fire to the living room on the first floor of the house. Takanami’s eldest daughter, Suzu, 6, and her eldest son, Nobu, 2, died due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Takanami and her three children lived in the two-story home with Goto, even though she had divorced him three days before the crime.
Takanami’s mother made an emergency call, after she went to her daughter’s house having learned that the children were not at nursery school.
When firefighters arrived, the fire — which partially destroyed the first floor — had already gone out. The five were found collapsed on futons in a room on the first floor.
Goto was taken to a hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.
During questioning after his arrest, Goto stated that he committed the crime in a fit of rage after Takanami asked him to leave the house immediately.
© Japan Today/KYODO