YOKOHAMA — Four women in their 20s have told Kanagawa Prefectural Police they were drugged by a man believed to be the same one who was arrested Thursday for allegedly drugging and robbing a Hachioji, Tokyo, college student, police said on Friday.
The man persuaded the Hachioji woman to take tablets suspected to have been psychotropic drugs or sleeping pills, claiming they would make her skin more beautiful, police said. She later woke from a coma in her bed with her money missing.
Police also said the man has confessed to doing the same with two other women who apparently died of exposure after being left outside unconscious in Kanagawa Prefecture.
The four women, ranging in age from 23 to 29, live in Tokyo and Kawasaki. Three of the four are members of the same voice-mail dating service the man often used and told police they were robbed of cash the same way between October and December. They said they decided to come forward when they learned of the deaths from television and newspaper reports, police said.
The 23-year-old man hails from Oi, Kanagawa Prefecture, and contacted the three women through the telephone dating service, police said, adding that they are questioning him about his involvement in other cases.
When he was arrested, the man had three types of psychotropic and other pills in his possession, police said. They quoted him as saying he drugged and robbed the women because he needed the money, but did not expect anyone to die.