Police in Chiba arrested a 75-year-old man on suspicion of killing his bedridden wife, 74, at a residential care home in Mihama Ward, after nurses found the tube keeping her alive had been removed.
Akira Yamaguchi, a resident of the same ward, was arrested on Oct. 28, Chiba Nishi Police Station said. His wife, Takako, could reportedly neither speak nor breathe on her own.
The tube was pulled from her throat during a visit when the couple were alone together, according to the station.
Nurses found the tube removed
The alleged act took place between 9:52 a.m. and 11:35 a.m. on Oct. 27. A nurse on her rounds noticed the tube that sustained Takako's life had come out.
Staff struggled to respond. "The suspect would not leave the seat by the bed," an investigator said. "The husband of a resident believed to have died in the room would not come out, so a doctor could not confirm death."
The doctor then asked staff to call police over concerns about the circumstances. The suspect was not agitated, the investigator said.
During questioning after his arrest, Yamaguchi said he did not want to cause his wife any more suffering. "I intended to die myself after killing her," he was quoted as saying.
A couple who once seemed happy
The suspect's home is a unit in a large apartment block about a 15-minute walk from the care home. The couple bought it in their late 30s with a ¥20 million loan. They have a son in his 30s.
"Her husband had a job that required advanced specialist knowledge," a woman in her 70s who lives in the same building said. "He never made a show of affection with his wife in public, but you could tell he treasured her. Then a few years ago she collapsed from illness."
Yamaguchi is small in build and usually wears a dark cap and a face mask. He doted on a small dog, Sora, taking it for walks several times a day.
A woman in her 60s who knew him said the two had bonded over their elderly dogs. He would ask after hers and, in the park, look up at the sky and jot notes on his phone. "I'm writing poems. I'm going to enter them," she recalled him saying.