Man gets 20 years for killing woman, dumping her body in Miyagi mountain forest

TOCHIGI — The Utsunomiya District Court in Tochigi Prefecture has sentenced a 37-year-old man to 20 years in prison for confining a 24-year-old woman in his apartment for a month and beating her until she died, in December 2019. The victim’s body was then dumped in a mountain forest in Miyagi Prefecture.

In its ruling on Thursday, the court said Manabu Kaifu conspired with his wife Haruka and his sister-in-law, Sayaka Takagi, to confine Sanae Tanaka in their apartment where he beat her, causing her to die of her injuries, Kyodo News reported. They then buried Tanaka’s body in a mountain forest in Shiroishi City, Miyagi Prefecture.

The case came to light when Kaifu’s wife visited a police station in Sakura, Tochigi Prefecture, on Jan 18, 2020, and said that she had helped him bury a woman’s body in the forest in December 2019. Acting on this information, police found Tanaka’s remains and arrested Kaifu, his wife and sister-in-law.

In sentencing Kaifu, the presiding judge pointed out that the crime involved confining the woman for a long period of time in order to force her into prostitution, handcuffing her, and repeatedly assaulting her. He said: “This is an insult to human dignity, and the suffering of the victim is unimaginable.The viciousness is unprecedented.’’

Kaifu’s wife and sister-in-law are being tried separately.

© Japan Today