JAPANESE WOMAN HIDES MOM’S CORPSE IN FREEZER FOR 10 YEARS

Sat 30 January 2021:

A Japanese woman who said she hid her mother’s corpse in a freezer in her apartment for a decade told police she feared eviction if the death was discovered, media reported Saturday.

Police told AFP that Yumi Yoshino, 48, was held “on suspicion of abandoning and hiding a female body” found Wednesday inside the freezer in a Tokyo apartment.

The mother, thought to be aged around 60 at the time of her death, was named on the lease of the apartment in a municipal housing complex, Kyodo News said.

Yoshino had been forced to leave the apartment in mid-January after missing rent payments, the reports said, and a cleaner discovered the body in a freezer hidden in a closet.

An autopsy could not determine the time and cause of woman’s death, the reports said.