A Japanese woman who said she had hidden her mother’s corpse in a freezer in her apartment for a decade told police she feared eviction if the death was discovered, according to reports.
Yumi Yoshino, 48, was detained “on suspicion of abandoning and hiding a female body”, found on Wednesday in a freezer in a Tokyo apartment, police said.
Yoshino said that when his mother died about 10 years ago, she hid the body because she feared she would be forced to move out of the apartment they shared, local media reported, citing unidentified police sources.
The mother, who was about 60 at the time of her death, was quoted for renting the apartment in a municipal housing complex, Kyodo News said.
Yoshino was forced to leave the apartment in mid-January after losing his rent payment, reports said, and a cleaning lady discovered the body in a freezer hidden in a closet.
An autopsy failed to determine the time and cause of the woman’s death, reports said.