A 16-year-old boy under arrest in connection with an arson fire that claimed his stepmother and siblings at their Nara Prefecture home has told police he did not want his father to know about his school performance, investigative sources said Friday.
The boy, whose identity has been withheld because he is a minor, was arrested Thursday and admitted starting a fire at the bottom of the stairs in his house in Tawaramoto early Tuesday with the intention of killing his stepmother, Dr. Minka Yoshikawa, 38, brother, Yoshiki, 7, and sister, Yumin, 5. Their bodies bore knife wounds but an autopsy revealed they died of carbon monoxide poisoning, the sources said.
The statement by the boy, a high school sophomore, suggest he was under intense pressure from his father, Motoyoshi, 47, also a doctor, over his performance at school, the sources said.