The Sapporo District Court on Wednesday acquitted a former bar hostess of a 1998 charge of murdering a 9-year-old Sapporo boy but ruled she caused his death after kidnapping him in 1984 and confining him in her home.
Kazuko Kudo, 45, from the town of Shizunai in Hokkaido, was arrested in November 1998 on suspicion of murdering Hidenori Jomaru, who disappeared on Jan. 10, 1984.
Prosecutors had demanded a life prison term. Kudo was arrested only two months before the statute of limitations for murder ran out. The statutes for other offenses, including causing bodily injury resulting in death, had run out by 1998.
It is unknown how the child died, but bones found in June 1988 at Kudo's former residence were those of Jomaru, presiding Judge Manabu Sato said, noting the defendant caused his death after luring him from his home and confining him.