YOKOHAMA – A 30-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man were held on suspicion of abandoning her daughter’s body in Yokohama, police said Wednesday.
Yukie Yamaguchi and Ryuichi Yatsui have admitted to burying Yamaguchi’s daughter, Airi, 6, in July in some bushes in Isogo Ward.
Police found skeletal remains Sunday as described by Yamaguchi. They are believed to be those of the daughter, they said.
Yamaguchi told investigators earlier this week that she abandoned the body with Yatsui, a construction worker she used to live with in an apartment in Yokohama.
Yatsui told investigators that her daughter died after he beat her to “discipline her” because she didn’t listen to him. Yamaguchi also admitted that the couple hit her as a form of discipline, police said.
In July, police informed a Yokohama child welfare consultation center that they suspected the daughter was being abused by Yamaguchi and Yatsui based on reports from their neighbors, who heard children crying from their house. Yamaguchi has another daughter, 4, and a 4-month-old son, who were both taken into custody by the child consultation center.
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