CHIBA (Kyodo) A 48-year-old man under arrest on suspicion of robbery resulting in injury has confessed to fatally stabbing a female college, whose corpse was found last October in her gutted apartment in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, police sources said Thursday.
Investigators carried out a search after the confession by suspect Tatsumi Tateyama and found a knife that appears to have been used in the murder, the sources said.
The police are currently conducting tests on traces found on the knife, they said.
Yukari Ogino, 21, was a senior at Chiba University's Faculty of Horticulture. She was found dead with stab wounds to the neck and chest after her apartment was destroyed in what appears to have been an arson attack on Oct. 22.
During questioning, Tateyama admitted to breaking into Ogino's apartment on Oct. 21, stealing her cash card, and withdrawing cash from her bank account at an automated teller machine, the police sources said.
Tateyama was quoted as telling the investigators that he first slashed Ogino, fell into a scuffle and then stabbed her.
The knife was found near the Faculty of Horticulture campus in Matsudo, some 20 km northeast of central Tokyo, based on information provided by the suspect, the sources said.
Tateyama was first arrested in a separate robbery case. On Jan. 6, a fresh arrest warrant was served on him on suspicion of robbery resulting in injury against two other women.
Earlier reports said Tateyama was captured on security video footage withdrawing cash from the victim's account at an ATM.