Man arrested for abandoning mother’s corpse in Ishigaki

Yaeyama Police arrested Tuesday a 28-year-old man on an initial charge of abandoning his mother’s corpse.

According to Ishigaki Police, Takuya Maetake, who lives in Ohkawa, Ishigaki City, was arrested on the spot when police, visiting his house with an arrest warrant for another crime, found him in the process of burying his dead mother in the back of his house.

Reportedly, Maetake has admitted to the charge, saying, “I killed my mother and buried her.” According to investigators, he stated that he had strangled his mother, and police are planning to question him as a murder suspect.

Maetake was suspected of stealing a bag containing cash, and when police visited his home Tuesday to arrest him on larceny charges, they found Maetake holding a shovel in his hand. They also discovered a dead woman who was buried up to her chest in a flower garden behind the house.

The site is in a quiet residential area. According to neighbors, Maetake lived in the house with his mother on the second floor, and father on the first floor.