Arrested Man Served New Warrant over 2007 Murder of Girl in Japan

Kobe, Nov. 27 (Jiji Press)--Japanese police on Wednesday served a fresh arrest warrant to a 45-year-old suspect in the 2006 case of attempted murder of a girl in Tatsuno, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, for allegedly stabbing another girl to death in Kakogawa in the same prefecture in 2007.

Kunihiko Katsuta had admitted his involvement in murdering Yuzuki Unose, then a 7-year-old second-grade elementary school student, during voluntary questioning, investigative sources said.

Katsuta is suspected of stabbing Unose several times in the stomach and other parts of her body with a blade-like object around 6 p.m. on Oct. 16, 2007, on the premises of her home in Kakogawa.

Since May this year, the Hyogo prefectural police department had voluntarily questioned Katsuta, who is serving an indefinite prison sentence for the 2004 murder of yet another girl, then a third-grade elementary school student, in Tsuyama in Okayama Prefecture, which neighbors Hyogo.

Although Katsuta initially denied his involvement in the cases in Tatsuno and Kakogawa, which were similar to the case in Tsuyama in terms of the characteristics of the victims and crime methods, he later admitted his involvement, according to the sources.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]