Prosecutors on Thursday posthumously dropped an arson case against a man over charges of murder and arson at an Osaka mental health clinic last December that left him and 26 others dead.
The investigation into the suspected arson on Dec. 17 ended, as the 61-year-old suspect, Morio Tanimoto, died in the hospital on Dec. 30 before police could question him. The police had referred the case to prosecutors on Wednesday.
Tanimoto was suspected of spraying gasoline and starting a fire at the clinic, killing 26 people, including regular visitors to the facility and its director, Kotaro Nishizawa, 49. He was also suspected of igniting a fire at a house he lived in just before the incident.