Photo/Illutration Hazel Ann Baguisa Morales, left, and Bryan Jefferson Lising Dela Cruz (Captured from their Facebook accounts)

Police rearrested a man and a woman from the Philippines on suspicion of murdering a Japanese couple in Tokyo in January, the Metropolitan Police Department announced on March 1.

The suspects--Hazel Ann Baguisa Morales, 30, and Bryan Jefferson Lising Dela Cruz, 34--deny the allegation, but police believe they hid inside the victims’ house for several hours before killing the couple.

The two have been indicted for abandoning the bodies of Norihiro Takahashi, 55, self-employed, and his wife, Kimie, 52.

Morales, unemployed and living in Adachi Ward, and Dela Cruz, who was most recently working for a construction-related company and lives in Ibaraki Prefecture, face new allegations of breaking into the couple’s home in Adachi Ward and stabbing them to death.

“I had nothing to do with it, and I didn’t do it,” police quoted Morales as saying.

Dela Cruz told investigators, “I was there, but I did not kill them.”

Both suspects may have entered the residence on the morning of Jan. 16, according to investigative sources.

Security camera footage shows Takahashi returned home at around noon on Jan. 16, and Kimie went out at around 1:30 p.m. before returning home at around 4:30 p.m.

Police believe the two suspects hid inside the three-story house for several hours, killed Takahashi and then his wife, then put their bodies underneath the floorboards.

Both suspects had known each other since they met in the Philippines.

After his arrest in January on suspicion of abandoning the bodies, Dela Cruz stated that Morales had asked him to do it and that he was promised a reward.

Dela Cruz’s blood was found inside the house, and traces of blood believed to belong to Morales were also found on a knife believed to be the murder weapon.

(This article was written by Minami Endo, Shomei Nagatsuma and Yuji Masuyama.)

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