A man arrested in January in a robbery-murder case was recaptured Tuesday after he escaped Monday from a hospital in Hokkaido, police said.
Hideto Niwa, 22, was apprehended while riding a bicycle at around 7:40 a.m. on a street in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido, police said.
He escaped sometime between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Monday from his room on the second floor of a hospital in Chitose, south of Kitahiroshima, where he had been detained for psychiatric tests since Feb. 15, according to police.
Niwa is suspected of strangling a 67-year-old manager of a hot-springs inn in Shiraoi, Hokkaido, on Jan. 25 and stealing 38,000 yen. He was arrested Jan. 28 in Iwate Prefecture.