Four women -- all with experience in the medical field -- were arrested Sunday for allegedly murdering a man from Fukuoka's Kokura-kita Ward in 1999 so that they could get some 30 million yen in insurance money.
Policed identified the suspects as 42-year-old nurse Junko Yoshida of Kurume; former nurse Hitomi Ishii, 43, of Okawa; nurse Kazuko Ikegami, 41; and medical coordinator Miyuki Tsutsumi, 42, both of Kurume.
All of the suspects have admitted to the allegations against them, police said.
According to police, the suspects summoned Tsuyoshi Kumon, whom Ishii was married to but living separately from at the time, to her parents' home on the afternoon of March 27, 1999.
They then had him drink a large amount of liquor so that he would drop off to sleep. The suspects then inserted a tube into his throat and made him ingest a large amount of alcohol through it, investigators said.
Kumon, 44, was taken to a hospital in Okawa the following day, but died from respiratory failure after developing pneumonia.
The women received some 30 million yen in life insurance payments after Kumon's death, police allege.