Photo/Illutration Investigators gather at a home in Komae, western Tokyo, where a 90-year-old woman was brutally murdered on Jan. 19. (Minami Endo)

A brutal murder in Komae, western Tokyo, is being linked to a spate of robberies and other crimes organized through a smartphone network that advertises “jobs” available for various criminal enterprises working in the Kanto region, police say.

This assessment was the result of shared information between the Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo and Chiba prefectural police stemming from the Jan. 19 discovery of an elderly woman who had been bound and beaten in her ransacked home.

Chiba police investigating a separate incident informed the MPD about a smartphone message found on a suspect that pointed to a possible “job” in Komae that included the address of the home to be targeted.

According to the MPD, Chiba police called around 2:45 p.m. on Jan. 19 and said a home registered to the Oshio family might be the target of a robbery attempt.

At 5:10 p.m., police officers went to the home to check on the occupants and were able to enter with a family member who had happened to return as they arrived.

Kinuyo Oshio, 90, was found covered in blood with her hands bound in front of her. Her death was confirmed on the spot.

A police autopsy determined she died from multiple trauma.

Bruises all over the woman’s body showed she had been severely and repeatedly beaten.

The autopsy surmised she was killed around noon on Jan. 19.

Drawers in several rooms were opened and the contents scattered on the floor. The footprints of several individuals were also found in the home.

The suspect held by Chiba police was a Self-Defense Forces member based in Mie Prefecture. The twentysomething man was arrested Jan. 13 on suspicion of robbery resulting in injury for an incident in Oamishirasato city the previous day.

One of the messages on his smartphone with the title “Job” bore the Oshio family address.

BRUTALITY HALLMARK

MPD investigators are looking into possible links to a string of similar crimes in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area this month.

Those crimes typically involved a group of three men who tied up residents with tape and threatened them with a hammer to reveal where money was kept in the house.

Police are looking into an underground website that recruited a number of individuals to carry out such crimes.

On Jan. 9, a woman in her 70s living in Miyamae Ward, Kawasaki, just west of Tokyo, had 10,000 yen ($77) stolen from her at her home.

The following day, a man in his 50s living in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, east of Tokyo, was robbed of 3 million yen.

Both victims were threatened after their hands and legs were bound with tape.

On Jan. 12, a woman in her 80s living alone in Saitama city, north of Tokyo, was robbed of about 120,000 yen after she was bound and driven around in a car for about seven hours.

Early on Jan. 14, two similar crimes occurred in Ryugasaki and Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. Elderly couples were the victims in both cases.

A pawn shop in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, was robbed Jan. 9 when three men entered and smashed a showcase to make off with 20 or so high-end wristwatches.

In December, a similar incident occurred at a jewelry shop in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward. In that incident, the thieves smashed a glass shelf with a hammer and stole rings and other jewelry.

The MPD announced Jan. 20 that three 19-year-old males were arrested between Jan. 17 and 18, before the Komae murder.

MPD officials believe the three are also connected to the other crimes in the Kanto region because of similarities in the way they were carried out. Information is being shared with other prefectural police departments, according to investigative sources.

One of the three suspects told police he responded to an ad on an Instagram site and that orders were received through direct messages from the person orchestrating the criminal acts.

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