Photo/Illutration Susumu Terauchi, left, and Miki Kawano stand near JR Hakata Station in Fukuoka before she was attacked on Jan. 16. (Captured by a security camera)

FUKUOKA—Police on Jan. 18 arrested a man who is believed to have stalked his former girlfriend before stabbing her to death in front of JR Hakata Station here.

Susumu Terauchi, 31, who lives in Fukuoka’s Hakata Ward and works at a restaurant, is suspected of murdering Miki Kawano, 38, on Jan. 16.

He has admitted to attacking Kawano, Fukuoka prefectural police said.

“I stabbed her with a knife,” investigators quoted him as saying.

Police were searching for Terauchi after the attack in Fukuoka’s Hakata Ward. They found him walking on a street in the ward, about 1.5 kilometers northwest of the crime scene, around 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 18.

He had a knife in his possession, they said.

According to police, Kawano, a company employee residing in Nakagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, had consulted police about Terauchi’s behavior since October 2022.

She told police she broke up with Terauchi, but he refused to accept her decision.

Police gave Terauchi a verbal warning to leave her alone. But he called Kawano and her workplace in November.

Based on the anti-stalking law, police forbade him from contacting Kawano. They said they checked Kawano’s situation on Jan. 6 and found nothing abnormal.

A security camera near the crime scene captured Kawano, who appeared to be on her way home from work, walking with Terauchi on Jan. 16.

They stopped and chatted on a sidewalk.

A few minutes later, around 6:15 p.m., Terauchi pulled her to the ground, stabbed her with a knife, and left the scene, the footage showed.

According to police, Terauchi stabbed Kawano a dozen times. She suffered slash and stab wounds on her head, chest and stomach, and died of blood loss.

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