Multiple Knives Found in Gifu Cake Shop Arson-Murder Case

Motosu, Gifu Pref., Sept. 7 (Jiji Press)--Gifu prefectural police have found multiple knives at a cake shop in the central Japan prefecture where two people were found dead after a fire on Saturday, investigative sources said Monday.

The police believe the knives may include the weapon used to stab a man who died of blood loss from a stab wound to the abdomen.

The fire started Sunrise, a cake shop in the Gifu city of Motosu, on Saturday night. The bodies of the stabbed man and a woman were found in the burned-out building. The woman died of acute carbon monoxide poisoning.

Meanwhile, three others were taken to hospital from the scene, including a 70-year-old company executive, who was later confirmed dead. The conditions of the other two, the cake shop’s 68-year-old owner and a 65-year-old man from the Gifu city of Mizuho, are unknown.

At the time of the incident, a total of 11 people were at the shop, and all but the company executive were junior high school classmates, according to police sources. The former classmates had met regularly, and the police are investigating why the company executive joined them that day.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]