Woman held over marriage scam served new warrant

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SAITAMA, Japan, Feb. 1 Kyodo -
A 35-year-old woman at the center of suspicions over a series of mysterious
deaths was served with a fresh arrest warrant Monday on suspicion of killing
her boyfriend in Saitama Prefecture last year, police said.
Kanae Kijima, who was initially arrested in September on charges of defrauding
men she had said she would marry of cash, allegedly killed Yoshiyuki Oide, 41,
in August, the police said. Investigations continue into whether Kijima is
linked with the deaths of three other men, including an acquaintance in Chiba
Prefecture.
The Saitama police said Oide was found dead in a car in a parking lot in Fujimi
on Aug. 6. Coal briquettes were found inside the car, while traces of a
sleeping drug were detected in his body. Carbon monoxide poisoning from a
charcoal burner in a locked car is a common means of suicide in Japan.
Kijima said she accompanied Oide to the parking lot in the leased car after
having dinner together at her place on the night before he was found dead, but
denied murdering him.
''We separated after having a quarrel. I think he killed himself afterwards,''
the police quoted Kijima as saying.
The police, however, investigated his death as foul play partly because no car
key was found inside the locked car.
They found that Kijima purchased several charcoal stoves and packs of
artificial coal prior to Oide's death through the Internet and that there was a
match between the traces of the sleeping drug detected in Oide's body and a
sleeping pill Kijima was prescribed by a hospital, investigative sources said.
Given these circumstances, the police suspect Kijima killed Oide in a manner
intended to make it appear he had committed suicide, according to the sources.
Kijima was given a fresh arrest warrant in January on suspicion of defrauding
Oide of more than 4 million yen in cash by telling him she needed money to pay
her tuition for a vocational school. On Monday, she was indicted by public
prosecutors in Saitama on a fraud charge.
Between last September and January, Kijima was arrested six times on suspicion
of fraud, attempted fraud and other charges. She has been indicted five times.
Another acquaintance of Kijima, an 80-year-old man from Noda, Chiba Prefecture,
was found dead in a fire at his home last May. Artificial coal was found at the
burned-out site while traces of a sleeping drug were detected in his body,
according to the police.
==Kyodo
2010-02-01 23:55:35