Photo/Illutration Shu Fujii is taken away at 12:03 a.m. on Oct. 18 following his arrest on suspicion of confining a woman from Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. (Minaho Serizawa)

ICHIKAWA, Chiba Prefecture--A woman here was assaulted and abducted during a home invasion on Oct. 17, but police tracked down the robbery group and rescued her later that night in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture.

Police arrested Shu Fujii, 26, whose address and occupation are unknown, at the scene while he was with the woman.

Another man suspected of being part of the robbery group turned himself in at a police station in Kanagawa Prefecture in the early hours of Oct. 18, according to investigators.

Fujii is also believed to be connected to two other criminal cases, including the death of an elderly man at his home in Yokohama, police said.

The abducted woman in her 50s suffered severe facial injuries, but her life is not in danger, investigators said.

Her disappearance came to light around 7 a.m. on Oct. 17, after the woman’s mother, 72, returned home from a night shift.

She told police, “The front door was unlocked, and the room was ransacked.”

The mother found a smashed window and bloodstains inside the house. She said the family safe was tampered with, and cash was missing from a wallet, according to police.

The daughter and her car were missing. Police could not contact her, so they started a search.

Through security camera footage, they found that the group had taken the daughter to a hotel in Kawagoe.

At 9:45 p.m. on Oct. 17, police apprehended Fujii when he left the hotel room and rescued the woman. Police said it remains unclear why he exited the room.

At 10:18 p.m., Fujii was formally arrested on suspicion of confining the woman.

The woman told police that she was sleeping at home when three men broke in and beat and kicked her.

She was tied up with adhesive tape, forced into a car and taken to the hotel in Kawagoe. She remained bound at the hotel, but the adhesive tape was removed when she was told to leave the room.

CONNECTIONS FOUND

Since August, a series of robberies targeting homes and stores have occurred across the Tokyo area.

On Oct. 16 in Yokohama, a 75-year-old resident was found dead in his home with his hands and feet bound. Around 200,000 yen ($1,300) in cash had been stolen, and his body showed signs that he had been beaten.

Investigative sources said Fujii’s fingerprints match those recovered from the man’s home.

Fujii is also suspected of involvement in an Oct. 9 home invasion in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, where two men attacked an elderly couple and stole about 9 million yen.

The wife, who is in her 70s, was seriously injured, including a broken rib.

In the early hours of Oct. 16 in Shiroi, Chiba Prefecture, an intruder or intruders broke into a home, tied up two female residents in their 70s and 40s, assaulted them, and stole around 200,000 yen in cash.

A man carrying a backpack was seen at the Yokohama crime scene, and similar-looking man with a backpack was spotted near the scenes in Chiba Prefecture, the sources said.

Given the similarities in the modus operandi of the bandits, police suspect the same masterminds are likely behind the cases.

A joint investigation headquarters, comprising officers from Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department and the Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectural police departments, was set up on Oct. 18 to tackle the string of robberies.

(This article was compiled from reports by Jun Sugie, Minami Endo, Arisa Inaba and Junji Murakami.)

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