NANTAN, Kyoto Prefecture—The father of a slain schoolboy here admitted to strangling his 11-year-old son in a car before falsely reporting the boy as missing, investigative sources said.
“I strangled him to death,” Yuuki Adachi, 37, reportedly told investigators during questioning. “After stopping by the school once (with my son in the car), I moved to another location and killed him.”
Adachi has been arrested on suspicion of abandoning the body of his son, Yuki, in a wooded area in Nantan, Kyoto Prefecture.
He has admitted to this allegation, saying, “There is no doubt that I did it.”
An autopsy on Yuki’s body has not determined the cause of death.
On March 23, Adachi made an emergency call to police, saying that Yuki had disappeared.
The father told prefectural police he had driven his son from their home to the premises of Sonobe Elementary School about 9 kilometers away at around 8 a.m.
“I drove my child to school, but when I went to pick him up, they told me he ‘never came,’” he claimed.
His report prompted a search by police and firefighters, who treated it as a “missing person case.”
Daiki Nonaka, 59, the local fire brigade chief, recalled that Adachi approached him three times during the search to say, “I apologize for the trouble, but I’m counting on you.”
Adachi and his wife bowed deeply and appeared distraught, Nonaka said.
Upon hearing of Adachi’s arrest, Nonaka told reporters: “I was hoping for a swift discovery. It is a terrible outcome, and I am deeply saddened.”
FOLLOWING THE TRAIL
Police confirmed that Yuki was alive on the morning of March 23, when security camera footage showed the suspect’s car near the school.
However, cameras on the school building itself recorded no footage of the boy walking toward the campus.
Investigators suspect that between the morning of March 23 and the evening of April 13, Adachi moved his son’s body on multiple occasions to several locations within the city, including the wooded area in the Sonobecho district where it was discovered.
Police said the body was moved by “a vehicle other than a motorcycle” but declined to specify other disposal sites or the motive for the relocations.
On April 15 and 16, prefectural police searched Adachi’s home and seized more than 30 items, including clothing belonging to the father and son.
His car was also seized for examination.
A QUIET FACADE
According to residents, the boy’s mother was remarried to the suspect, and people in the neighborhood began seeing him from around autumn last year.
One male resident who received a missing-person flier from Yuki’s parents said the suspect “seemed quiet and polite.”
People who knew Adachi in his youth consistently said he was “quiet” and “seemed serious.” According to acquaintances, Adachi lived in an apartment complex in Kyoto city with his grandmother and older brother until high school.
A woman who frequently visited the complex until about 20 years ago said the suspect’s father was absent and his mother was rarely seen. The woman said Adachi’s grandmother acted as his guardian and doted on him.
AloJapan.com