Man Murders Parents For Interrupting His ‘Anime Viewing,’ Keeps Corpses In Refrigerator

KEY POINTS

A 59-year-old Japanese man admitted to killing both his parents late last month
His father and mother, aged 88 and 87, were found dead in a refrigerator
The man said he killed his parents because caring for them interrupted his anime viewing sessions

A 59-year-old Japanese man has admitted to killing both his parents, whose corpses were found inside a refrigerator in their shared home in Nishi-ku, Fukuoka City, late last month, according to reports from local media.

Junji Matsumoto, who was already in custody on suspicion of abandoning his parents' corpses, was re-arrested by the Fukuoka Prefectural Police after he admitted to the murders, Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun reported.

Police had found on June 29 the bodies of Matsumoto's parents, identified as 88-year-old Hirokazu Matsumoto and his 87-year-old wife Makie, inside a refrigerating case in their Yokohama house that used to be a liquor store, an earlier report by Japanese broadcaster NHK said.

Matsumoto was arrested on the morning of July 4 in a hotel parking lot in Kyoto City over the abandonment suspicions.

Matsumoto, the couple's unemployed second child, killed his father on the night of June 20, according to investigators. He told police he strangled the elderly man with an electric cord that was about 1 meter (3 feet) long.

The father had asked for Matsumoto's help in going to the toilet multiple times on the day of the murder, as per The Asahi Shimbun.

Hirokazu had been left unable to walk after falling on a bike on June 13. He had taken care of the wheelchair-bound Makie until the incident, which forced Junji to be in charge of preparing meals.

"It became troublesome when caring for my parents always interrupted my anime viewing. I couldn’t stand it so I killed them," Matsumoto was quoted as saying by the Tokyo Reporter.

Police discovered the bodies after a relative informed authorities that the family had "dropped out of contact" for an extended period of time, reports said. Upon arriving at the home, they found Matsumoto's parents inside a refrigerator that had been taped shut.

An examination of the bodies showed no signs of external wounds, and the results of autopsies also did not reveal the causes of their deaths.

Matsumoto admitted to killing his parents after he was caught attempting to travel across the country by train.