A 33-year-old woman charged with killing a neighbor boy in Fujisato, Akita Prefecture, has told police she was with her daughter on a bridge when the girl fell off and drowned in a river in April, reversing her earlier claim that she last saw her when the girl left home to see a friend, investigative sources said.
Suzuka Hatakeyama was arrested last month on suspicion of killing Goken Yoneyama, 7, in May and dumping his corpse along a river near where her 9-year-old daughter, Ayaka, was found drowned a month earlier in what police initially concluded was an accident.
Hatakeyama has told investigators that she and Ayaka went to the Osawa Bridge on the Fujikoto River, some 2 km from their home, in the evening of April 9 because the girl wanted to go there, according to the sources.