The three Chinese suspects in the June murder of a family in Fukuoka are all telling Japanese and Chinese police they broke into the family's home with the aim of robbing them, police sources said Friday.
The Fukuoka prefectural police will send investigators to China for a second time as early as in mid-October to find out why the three -- one in police custody in Japan and the other two in China -- targeted the family of four in Fukuoka, the sources said.
The Fukuoka police and the National Police Agency sent an investigative team to Beijing in late September to discuss the case with their Chinese counterparts and received briefings on the Chinese police investigations of the two suspects there.
The two suspects detained in China are Wang Liang, 21, and Yang Ning, 23, who reportedly admitted to Chinese authorities they killed Shinjiro Matsumoto, a 41-year-old clothing merchant, his wife and their two children.
The Japanese police determined that the accounts given by Wang and Yang match what the third suspect, 23-year-old Wei Wei, has been saying following his arrest in Japan in connection with another criminal case.
Wei, who was indicted Friday along with two other Chinese men in a separate case of theft and trespassing, has reportedly told Japanese police he broke into the Matsumotos' home with Wang and Yang and killed the family.
However, none of the three murder suspects have made any clear statements about their motive for choosing the Matsumoto family, the sources said.
In addition, it appears they had a prior intention to kill as they had procured dumbbells which they attached to the bodies of Matsumoto, his 40-year-old wife, Chika; 11-year-old son, Kai; and 8-year-old daughter, Hina; before throwing them into the sea.