Teens 1st Met Ringleaders on Day of Tochigi Robbery-Murder

Utsunomiya, Tochigi Pref., May 19 (Jiji Press)--Four 16-year-old boys arrested as suspected perpetrators of last week's high-profile robbery-murder case in Tochigi Prefecture, eastern Japan, met the couple suspected of ordering them to commit the crime for the first time on the day of the incident, investigative sources said Tuesday.

The couple, Kaito Takemae, 28, and his wife, Miyu, 25, are believed to have lent a white luxury sedan to the four teens, who used it to travel to the crime scene.

The boys, all from Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, are believed to have received instructions from the couple via their smartphones.

The Tochigi prefectural police department suspects that one of the four boys was recruited by a higher-ranking member of a loosely organized "tokuryu" crime group and was later introduced to the couple.

In collusion with the couple, from Yokohama, the capital of Kanagawa, the four boys are suspected of having broken into a house in the Tochigi town of Kaminokawa on Thursday morning and stabbed Eiko Tomiyama, 69, to death.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]