Photo/Illutration The 88-year-old woman was found in a small park near the senior housing facility in Fukuoka on Dec. 16. (Shinkai Kawabe)

FUKUOKA—An 88-year-old woman is believed to have killed her bedridden daughter before taking her own life in a park here near the housing facility where they lived.

The mother was apparently worried about their finances and had anxiety over caring for the 70-year-old.

As notes were found nearby indicating that the woman planned to take her own life, the Fukuoka prefectural police are investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide.

A passerby noticed the woman, who lived in a nearby senior housing facility, slouched against a storage box and bleeding in a Nishi Ward park around 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 16, and called emergency authorities.

The woman's daughter, Sayoko Inada, was found bleeding in her bed at around 7:55 a.m. in her mother's unit.

Both were taken to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead.

Notes found in the park and in the unit said: "I'm going to kill myself. Please do not tell my relatives."

Knife wounds were found on the upper part of both bodies, including the neck, and a bloodied knife was found on the woman's body, according to the Nishi Police Station.

The note found in the park was inside a plastic supermarket bag, which also contained an empty knife case.

A nurse is on duty 24 hours a day at the senior facility, with one having replaced an artificial hydration and nutrition aid for Sayoko at 5 a.m. the day of the incident. At the time, the nurse said there was nothing out of the ordinary about the pair, and no evidence of another person's entry into the unit was found.

Sayoko developed a serious illness a few years ago and started to live with her mother at the facility. As she was bedridden, the 88-year-old was her main caregiver.

As the two of them lived off their pensions, the woman had consultations with staff multiple times from the previous month, saying, "How can I continue to care for her?" and "I'm worried about our finances."

The prefectural police suspect that the woman had become despondent about the future, with anxiety about nursing and finances leading to the incident.