Prosecutors in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, said Thursday they will send a 17-year-old high school boy being held for the murder and dismemberment of his mother for a three-month psychiatric evaluation.
The Aizuwakamatsu Summary Court issued a warrant of detention for psychiatric tests on the boy, who is a senior at a public high school.
The teen will be held at a facility in Tokyo, the prosecutors said.
The Fukushima District Public Prosecutor's Office said it wants to know the boy's mental condition both at the time of the crime and currently, commenting that severing his mother's head and right arm was particularly unusual behavior.
The boy was arrested on May 15 on suspicion of murder after showing up at the Aizuwakamatsu Police Station with his mother's head in a bag.
Police believe the boy murdered his mother while she was asleep in his apartment at around 1:30 a.m. on May 15 and then severed her head and right arm. Investigators allege he painted his mother's right arm white and put it in a flower pot.