Japanese man stored dead mother in cellar

A unemployed Japanese man (52) was arrested today after admitting he kept his dead mother in a basement at his home for more than a year.

Mr Kunio Toi turned himself in to a police station in Shizuoka, near Tokyo, last night and told police he had kept the body of his mother, who died aged 79, in his basement.

"He had lived with his mother and said he had put her down in the basement because he did not know what to do with her body," the spokesman said.

"The body was partially skeletal because she had been kept there since March last year," he said.

Mr Toi gave inconsistent remarks, saying the mother had died of illness and he had killed her; the police would conduct an autopsy, the spokesman said.

AFP