Even by the standards of vicious crimes committed in Japan, Miyoko Sumida stands out.

Last Wednesday, police filed a new murder charge against Sumida and six members of her extended family for handcuffing a man in a shed on the balcony of her apartment, starving him to death and then placing his body in a barrel before filling it with cement and dumping it into a nearby harbour in western Japan.

The 64-year-old Sumida is said to be the mastermind of at least six murders to claim insurance or pension money.

One of the victims was Sumida's husband, who was part of a group of nine people having their photo taken on top of a cliff when he fell. The family received 90 million yen (S$1.3 million) in insurance and had a property mortgage written off.

Police are investigating suggestions from people who were present that the man was coerced into committing suicide.

Other victims apparently had loaned money to Sumida or had left property or other assets to her after their untimely deaths. More bodies have been found in steel drums or wrapped in blankets and hidden beneath floorboards of family properties.

The authorities are still looking into two more suspicious deaths, including that of her daughter-in-law's 88-year-old grandmother.

While the grisly murders have shocked many Japanese, perhaps what was more shocking is that the alleged leader of the pack - nicknamed The Piranha Family by local media - is a grandmother in her 60s.

But it goes some way towards bearing out new government statistics that suggest Japan is experiencing a crime wave committed by the elderly.

A White Paper on crime released last month showed that 48,637 people aged 65 and older were the subject of criminal investigations last year, accounting for 16 per cent of all those investigated in the 12-month period.

It was the highest percentage since statistics were first collected in 1986, and the total was over six times the figure 20 years ago.

The figures also paint a picture at odds with the image of genial and gentle grandparents. This is particularly when one considers that the number of elderly people charged with inflicting bodily injury has risen almost ninefold since 1992, and the number of assaults has rocketed more than 49-fold in the same period.

"It is a very difficult time for many old people," noted Mr Nobuyuki Kanematsu, the founder and chairman of the Association Against Ageism.

"A lot of older people are experiencing financial problems; their pensions do not go as far as they should and their savings are shrinking," he said.

"And there is a growing gap between the poor and the rich, with the poor often having to resort to shoplifting and such minor crimes just to survive."

Another problem is the way families have changed here in recent years, he said.

Grandparents used to live under the same roof with their children and their families.

"That was good because all the generations had support and could share advice. And it was simple things like eating together and talking that made the nuclear family so strong. But that has gone now."

Increasingly, old people are living as couples or alone and cut off from their families and society.

There are also indications that the less well-off, particularly those who are old and homeless, often commit minor crimes so that they can spend the cold winter months in a comparatively warm and comfortable prison.

While 70 per cent of the crimes committed by the elderly involve theft or shoplifting, it is the violent crimes committed by people like Sumida that cause the Japanese authorities the greatest worry.

Homicides committed by old people have risen even as the overall murder rate has declined.

To deal with the problem, the Japanese government is spending 8.3 billion yen on building three new prison wards specifically designed to cater to the rising number of elderly inmates.

Many of them are repeat offenders who commit another minor crime shortly after their release simply to get back into prison, where they know they will be warm and comfortable, get regular meals and have friends of their own age.

The convoluted crime spree of Amagasaki's 'piranha family'

By Mark Schreiber - JapanTimes.co.jp

November 25, 2012

By next week, the media will start compiling lists of the top news stories of 2012. The short list can be expected to include natural and manmade disasters, political bombshells, international disputes, indiscretions by celebrities in the worlds of sports and entertainment and, of course, sensational crimes.

For the latter, the year's top story in Japan is almost certain to be the Amagasaki renzoku fushin-shi jiken (Amagasaki incident involving a series of suspicious deaths).

On Oct. 30, a metal drum filled with concrete and containing the corpse of Jiro Hashimoto, was pulled out of the harbor in Bizen, Okayama Prefecture. Hashimoto, age 53 at the time he was believed to have been beaten to death in September last year, was the younger brother of Hisayoshi Sumida, who died at age 51 in 2005 when he "accidentally" fell off a cliff in Cape Manza, Okinawa.

Three weeks earlier police had found the body of Kazuko Oe, 66, in a metal drum at a warehouse in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture. A search also turned up the skeletal remains of two women and one man under the floorboards of a weatherbeaten house in Amagasaki.

If four other persons who have been declared missing can also be presumed dead as a result of foul play, the body count is now up to 10 — one death by falling, five corpses and the four who are missing. (Some writers have suggested even more bodies may be forthcoming.) The first of these deaths appears to date as far back as 1987, when the mother of Jiro Hashimoto went missing in Amagasaki.

Six men and two women, ranging in age from 25 to 64, have been implicated in the deaths. The tabloid media has nicknamed them the "piranha family," and in attempts to bring order to the confusion some publications have produced detailed diagrams showing the family tree, outlining the convoluted relationships between the victims and the alleged perpetrators.

The scene of at least some of the crimes was apparently a condominium in Amagasaki, where several victims appeared to have been beaten and locked in a storage shed on the veranda until they expired from starvation or dehydration. The corpses of Hashimoto and Oe were then dismembered and placed in large metal drums, which were filled with concrete.

The leading role in this shocking affair is attributed to 64-year-old Miyoko Sumida, a former operator of a "snack" establishment to whom the media refers to as a kijo (devil woman). Reportage of Sumida's crimes briefly took on the theater of the absurd when it was revealed that the photo of her which initially ran in numerous publications was actually a completely different person — a mistake since rectified.

Sumida's common-law husband Yutaro Azumayori, 62, has also been implicated, although his complicity in the crimes is unclear. Miyoko's younger sister Mieko Sumida reportedly received a total of ¥90 million in life-insurance payouts from two companies following the accidental death of her husband, Hisayoshi, in 2005.

While Miyoko is known to have expensive tastes (her residence was reportedly filled with deluxe furnishings), the true motives for the killings, and degree of involvement by other family members, have yet to be clarified. Miyoko has allegedly said she would accept full blame for all the deaths, but some concerns have arisen that the prosecutors may not be able to charge her with homicide, having to settle instead for a lesser charge of injury resulting in death.

While the death penalty can be imposed for the former, maximum punishment for the latter is 20 years' imprisonment, possibly extended to 30 years for multiple crimes. Sumida's defense attorneys are likely to argue that she could not have foreseen the deaths.

However, it appears Sumida may have arranged for a monitor camera to be set up outside the storage sheds in which the victims were imprisoned, and it has been suggested that this might justify upping the charges against her.

"If (the accused) maintains she did not believe the first victim would die, it will be difficult to prove homicidal intent," professor emeritus Hiroshi Itakura of Nihon University told Sunday Mainichi (Nov. 25). "But if she repeated the same actions, I suppose it's possible that charges of homicide through 'willful negligence' will be recognized."

Attorney Kazuo Mizushima told Aera (Nov. 26) he thinks the investigation into the crimes may require a year or longer. The media is digging in for the long haul.

Meanwhile the citizens of Amagasaki, a rough-and-tumble industrial town of 460,000 on Osaka's western periphery, have been aghast at the negative publicity dumped on their town in the wake of the Sumida affair. In the latest fallout, Aera noted that when 15 middle school students from neighboring Nishinomiya were scheduled to tour local factories earlier this month, only three showed up.

Citing a 2006 survey of residents of six Kansai prefectures, Aera noted that 61.9 percent of respondents said they regarded Amagasaki as a town with a poor public-safety record, and 57.6 percent considered it "dirty." But much progress has been made in reducing the city's once-notorious air pollution, and residents — despite the stigma brought on by the recent revelations — generally give their city better marks than do outsiders.

Japan in shock over woman’s 'reign of terror'

The Asahi Shimbun

November 9, 2012

AMAGASAKI, Hyogo Prefecture—It’s a crime spree that has gripped the nation, a horrific chain of events involving torture, death--and a 64-year-old woman so terrifying that she coerced children to turn against their parents.

Five bodies have been found, including two stuffed in concrete-filled drums. Four people remain missing, and multiple arrests have been made.

Police are still trying to uncover details of the crimes linked to Miyoko Sumida, the apparent ringleader of a group behind the violence.

Sumida, her common-law husband and six relatives were arrested on Nov. 7 on suspicion of abandoning the body of Jiro Hashimoto, 53, in a drum filled with concrete. The suspects include Sumida’s sister-in-law, Mieko Sumida, 59, Sumida’s cousin Masanori Sumida, 38, Sumida's son Yutaro Sumida, 25, and Rui Sumida, 27, Yutaro's wife.

Hashimoto was the brother of Mieko Sumida's husband.

Police suspect Hashimoto was living at Miyoko Sumida’s condominium in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, and died in July 2011 after being repeatedly assaulted and left handcuffed in a locked hut on the balcony for a week or so.

The drum containing his body was retrieved from the water at Hinase Port in Bizen, Okayama Prefecture, on Oct. 30.

Miyoko Sumida has generally admitted to the allegations, police said.

Hashimoto’s mother remains missing.

Sources said Miyoko Sumida was the tyrannical leader of the group of relatives, close and distant, who lived in her lavish condominium.

Not only was Sumida intimidating, but she was also a braggart, once showing off jewelry she claimed was worth 200 million yen ($2.5 million) to a neighbor.

It is unclear where Sumida obtained her apparent wealth. She dropped out of high school and opened a bar that hired women in an entertainment district of Amagasaki when she was a teenager. She married when she was 23 but divorced two years later, the sources said.

At the condominium filled with relatives and acquaintances, Mieko Sumida acted as Miyoko Sumida's treasurer, while Masanori Sumida was her bodyguard and Rui Sumida was considered her successor.

Miyoko Sumida and her minions were so intimidating that they forced family members of one victim to participate in her death, the sources said.

The victim was Kazuko Oe, 66, who lived in a condominium next to Sumida’s. Oe’s body was found in a concrete-filled drum in a warehouse in Amagasaki in November last year, apparently after having been confined in her condominium.

Miyoko Sumida, Masanori Sumida, Oe’s two daughters and a former husband of one of the daughters have been indicted on charges of causing injuries resulting in Oe’s death and abandoning her body.

The discovery of Oe’s body led to the wider investigation surrounding Sumida. Police soon discovered that eight other individuals connected to the Amagasaki woman were missing.

The bodies of three of them--Mariko Nakashima, 29, Takashi Tanimoto, 68, and Mitsue Ando, 71--were found under the floor of a house in Amagasaki in mid-October.

Nakashima was an older sister of Rui Sumida, and Tanimoto was their uncle. Ando had been a girlfriend of Miyoko Sumida’s late elder brother.

Police suspect the three died before 2008 after continued abuse from Sumida’s relatives in her condominium. They were fed only instant noodles and snacks during their final days, the sources said.

Sumida was long known to overreact to even the slightest inconveniences, and demanded outrageous compensation from the target of her vicious verbal attacks to make things right. She effectively took over and broke up the family of Nakashima and Rui Sumida using her methods of terror, according to sources close to the family.

In 2003, Miyoko Sumida and others invaded the family’s home in Takamatsu. According to sources, Sumida was infuriated because the sisters’ parents had refused to live with their nephew, Masanori Sumida, the sources said.

During the occupation of the house, the parents suffered months of violence from Miyoko Sumida, Masanori Sumida and others. Miyoko Sumida even forced the daughters to turn against their parents. Tanimoto, the father’s older brother, was later brought into the ring, the sources said.

The mother was reportedly reduced to skin and bone and died of an illness. The father was forced to borrow 18 million yen from his relatives before Sumida and her subordinates finally left for Amagasaki, taking with them the two daughters and Tanimoto, the sources said.

Rui, who had won Sumida’s favor, married son Yutaro in 2007.

In addition to Hashimoto’s mother, three other individuals remain unaccounted for: the brother of Miyoko Sumida’s adopted son, Kentaro; the woman who lived in the house where the bodies of Nakashima, Tanimoto and Ando were found; and the woman’s daughter.

(This article was compiled from reports by The Asahi Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun Weekly AERA.)

Miyoko Sumida, 7 others to be arrested in death of man discovered in drum in Okayama

Prime suspect is also being investigated for three bodies found under a home in Amagasaki

TokyoReporter.com

November 7, 2012

TOKYO (TR) – Hyogo prefectural police on Wednesday are expected to arrest Miyoko Sumida and seven others in connection to the discovery of a concrete-covered corpse stuffed inside a barrel raised last week from the bottom of Hinase Harbor in Bizen, Okayama Prefecture, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Nov. 7).

The barrel, retrieved on October 30, was confirmed to contain the body of a 54-year-old Jiro Hashimoto, who police suspect died after being physically abused at the residence of Miyoko Sumida, the central figure in a continuing investigation related to multiple suspicious deaths.

Miyoko Sumida, 64, was previously indicted for the death of 66-year-old Kazuko Oe, whose body was discovered last November encased in concrete inside a drum stored in a warehouse in Amagasaki City, Hyogo. She is accused of inflicting injury resulting in death. Sumida is expected to be re-arrested for the dumping of Hashimoto’s body.

According to police, Hashimoto, who is a distant relative of Sumida, died about a year ago.

On October 14 and 15, police discovered three corpses under the unoccupied Amagasaki home of the 88-year-old grandmother of the wife of the son of Sumida. Sumida’s sister-in-law, 59-year-old Mieko Sumida, and daughter-in-law, Rui Sumida, 27, are under prosecution for stealing 3.7 million yen in pension money from the grandmother’s account.

Investigators later announced that one body found under was that of Mitsue Ando, 71, the girlfriend of Miyoko Sumida’s elder brother. The other two corpses are Mariko Nakashima (29), the older sister of Rui Sumida, and 68-year-old Takashi Tanimoto, whose elder brother was an acquaintance of Miyoko Sumida.

Both Mieko and Rui Sumida are also expected to be re-arrested in the dumping of Hashimoto’s body. Included among the other five suspects are Nakashima’s 42-year-old husband and Masanori Ri, 38, Miyoko Sumida’s cousin who is serving a prison sentence in the death of Oe.

Ri is alleged to have masterminded the encasing of Hashimoto’s corpse in concrete with the other suspects assisting in the body’s disposal.

Police also revealed in October that following the accidental death of the 51-year-old husband of Mieko Sumida during a sightseeing trip to Cape Manza in Okinawa in 2005, payouts of 90 million yen for insurance policies and a home mortgage exemption were made to the junior Sumida.

On July 1, 2005, a group of nine people, including both Miyoko and Mieko Sumida, their relatives, and friends, gathered for a photo session at the edge of a 30-meter cliff overlooking the ocean. While standing in the back of the group, the victim reportedly dropped to his death.

According to the Sankei Shimbun (Oct. 29), police are currently investigating the insurance payout as a matter of fraud as witnesses have said that the man, who is the older brother of Hashimoto, was coerced into committing suicide.

In 2000, a condominium, also located in Amagasaki, was purchased in the name of Mieko Sumida’s husband. A loan of 29.8 million yen was taken out for the purchase, with Ando, who was found under the Amagasaki home, as one guarantor. Mieiko Sumida later paid off the loan in full.

Investigators believe that more people seen regularly around the Amagasaki home are still missing, including the 88-year-old grandmother, who police have been told was buried at the home of a relative in Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture. She has not been seen since 2003.

Drum discovered sunk off Okayama, believed linked to mysterious deaths in Hyogo

Miyoko Sumida is being investigated for three bodies found under a home in Amagasaki

TokyoReporter.com

October 30, 2012

TOKYO (TR) – Hyogo prefectural police on Tuesday raised a barrel filled with concrete from the bottom of Hinase Harbor in Bizen, Okayama Prefecture that is believed to contain a body related to an ongoing case of mysterious deaths in Hyogo Prefecture, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Oct. 30).

The barrel, retrieved from a depth of approximately three meters, is believed to hold the body of a 54-year-old man who police suspect died after being physically abused at the residence of Miyoko Sumida, the central figure in a continuing investigation related to multiple suspicious deaths.

Miyoko Sumida, 64, was previously indicted for the death of 66-year-old Kazuko Oe, whose body was discovered last November encased in concrete inside a drum stored in a warehouse in Amagasaki City, Hyogo. She is accused of inflicting injury resulting in death.

On October 14 and 15, police discovered three corpses under the unoccupied Amagasaki home of the 88-year-old grandmother of the wife of the son of Sumida. Sumida’s sister-in-law, 59-year-old Mieko Sumida, and daughter-in-law, Rui Sumida, 27, are under prosecution for stealing 3.7 million yen in pension money from the grandmother’s account.

Investigators later announced that one body found under was that of Mitsue Ando, 71, the girlfriend of Miyoko Sumida’s elder brother. The other two corpses are Mariko Nakashima (29), the older sister of Rui Sumida, and 68-year-old Takashi Tanimoto, whose elder brother was an acquaintance of Miyoko Sumida.

Police revealed last week that following the accidental death of the 51-year-old husband of Mieko Sumida during a sightseeing trip to Cape Manza in Okinawa in 2005, payouts of 90 million yen for insurance policies and a home mortgage exemption were made to the junior Sumida.

On July 1, 2005, a group of nine people, including both Miyoko and Mieko Sumida, their relatives, and friends, gathered for a photo session at the edge of a 30-meter cliff overlooking the ocean. While standing in the back of the group, the victim reportedly dropped to his death.

The man was the older brother of the missing man whose remains are believed to be inside the barrel raised on Tuesday.

According to the Sankei Shimbun (Oct. 29), police are currently investigating the insurance payout as a matter of fraud as witnesses have said that the man was coerced into committing suicide.

In 2000, a condominium, also located in Amagasaki, was purchased in the name of Mieko Sumida’s husband. A loan of 29.8 million yen was taken out for the purchase, with Ando, who was found under the Amagasaki home, as one guarantor. Mieiko Sumida later paid off the loan in full.

Police plan to open the barrel discovered on Wednesday to confirm its contents.

Investigators believe that more people seen regularly around the Amagasaki home are still missing, including the 88-year-old grandmother, who police have been told was buried at the home of a relative in Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture. She has not been seen since 2003.

Grisly Amagasaki details emerge

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Oct. 24, 2012

KOBE--A 54-year-old man, whose body is thought to have been abandoned in a metal barrel in the sea off Okayama Prefecture, died after being physically abused and confined at the home of Miyoko Sumida, the main figure in the so-called Amagasaki case in which three bodies were found at a home in the Hyogo Prefecture city, Sumida's relatives reportedly told police.

Meanwhile, the Hyogo prefectural police said the identity of the last body found in the house had been confirmed as Mariko Nakashima, 29, who was living in Amagasaki.

The man is one of many missing people in the case. He is a younger brother of the husband of Mieko Sumida, Miyoko's sister-in-law.

Miyoko Sumida, 64, has been indicted on suspicion of inflicting injuries on a woman resulting in death and other charges in a separate case in which the woman's body was found in a metal barrel last year. Mieko Sumida, 59, has been indicted on suspicion of theft in a separate case.

Miyoko's relatives reportedly told the police the man was beaten at her home and confined in a shed on the balcony for several days but was found dead when it was opened, investigative sources said Tuesday. The shed can be locked from outside.

Nakashima died under similar circumstances after several days of confinement in the shed after having been beaten, the relatives reportedly told the police.

The police suspect they died of starvation or dehydration.

The 54-year-old man had been living with Sumida and others for a while, but fled to Tokyo. He was found by members of Sumida's group in 2009 and taken back to Sumida's condominium in Amagasaki. He had been living with her until he died around the summer of last year, the police suspect.

The relatives said he had been regularly punched and kicked by those close to Sumida, the investigative sources said.

After he died, he was put in a metal drum with concrete, carried to Bizen, Okayama Prefecture, and abandoned in the sea, they reportedly told police.

Nakashima is the granddaughter of an 87-year-old woman who was living in the house where the three bodies were found and a daughter of a family in Takamatsu that was reportedly broken up by Sumida.

She was taken to the Kansai region by Sumida and others in 2003 and is believed to have died around 2008.

The other two bodies have been identified as Takashi Tanimoto, Nakashima's uncle, and Mitsue Ando, who was a girlfriend of Sumida's elder brother.

Sumida's condominium, with three rooms and a living-dining space, is on the top floor of an eight-story building. The living room is filled with luxury furniture, according to investigative sources.

The balcony is surrounded by a wooden fence, preventing people from seeing inside.

Woman at center of Amagasaki mystery deaths lived in luxurious condo

Mainichi Japan

October 22, 2012

AMAGASAKI, Hyogo -- A condominium here where Miyoko Sumida, the central figure in a series of mysterious deaths and disappearances, and her close acquaintances had lived will come up for court-ordered auction in early November.

Photos of the condo -- seized over the group's failure to keep up debt payments -- revealed the luxurious life Sumida, 64, and her close friends had led until recently. Sumida has been indicted on charges of inflicting injuries resulting in the death of a woman whose body was found in a concrete-filled drum in this city in November 2011.

The body of Mitsue Ando, 71, a girlfriend of Sumida's elder brother, was also discovered recently.

The condo was purchased in 2000 in the name of the husband of Sumida's younger sister Mieko, 59. Ando was one of the guarantors listed for a 29.8 million yen home loan. Mieko has been indicted on charges of theft.

Mieko's husband fell from a cliff and died during a trip to Okinawa in July 2005 and she received about 10 million yen in insurance money. She fully repaid the loan the following month. In 2008, revolving mortgages totaling 37.9 million yen were taken out on the condo in two installments.

According to a report prepared by the Amagasaki Branch of the Kobe District Court, the condo on the top floor of an eight-story building has about 75 square meters of floor space. Photos attached to the report show the condo has been renovated and features a mirrored entrance and hallways. The entrance porch and a major portion of the veranda are screened by wooden fences. The property's residents, however, had fallen nearly 80,000 yen behind in service charges and other costs by July this year.

A man who was invited to the condo by Miyoko Sumida three years ago remembers that lighting was dim and the house looked like a VIP room in a bar. She boasted that tableware, jewels and other valuables in a showcase amount to 200 million yen, the man says.

Investigative sources say the condo had been used exclusively by Sumida and her close acquaintances.

Hyogo bodies identified as murder case expands, reaches into past

Jiji, Kyodo - JapanTimes.co.jp

October 20, 2012

KOBE — Two of three bodies discovered under a house in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, have been identified, and police speculate the murder suspect they are holding in connection with the case may be responsible for the disappearance of several other people.

The two bodies identified were those of Takashi Tanimoto of Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, and Mitsue Ando, of Amagasaki.

Both Tanimoto, 68, and Ando are linked to Miyoko Sumida, 64, the prime suspect in a murder case in which the body of Kazuko Oe, a 66-year-old woman, was discovered last year in another part of Amagasaki, buried in cement inside an oil drum. Sumida's sister-in-law, Mieko, 59, is also under arrest.

Tanimoto, whose body was identified Thursday through DNA tests, is the uncle of Rui Sumida, 27, the daughter-in-law of suspect Miyoko Sumida.

Sources close to Tanimoto alleged that Miyoko Sumida extorted at least ¥16 million from relatives of Rui Sumida's father by forcing the daughter-in-law to beat him at his home in Takamatsu in 2003. Rui Sumida is now on trial for theft in a separate case.

Tanimoto and Rui Sumida's sister vanished soon afterward. The third body found under the Amagasaki house is suspected to be that of the sister, whose name was not provided.

The second body identified Friday, Ando, was a girlfriend of the older brother of Miyoko Sumida and had been financially linked to an apartment the suspect lived in. The flat was formerly owned by Mieko Sumida's late husband.

Ando's corpse as well as Tanimoto's were partly skeletonized, and sources said they have been dead several years.

Tanimoto's body had several bruises on the head and legs. According to sources, there is unverified information that Tanimoto was killed in 2003.

The police are investigating events that led up to the deaths, but have so far not revealed any causes of death.

Sources close to Miyoko Sumida said more corpses linked to the case have been dumped in Okayama and Kagawa prefectures. The police believe she played a key role in the deaths. Other reports said she intimidated her victims and exerted some sort of mind control over them.

Japan police make grisly discovery while investigating woman's 2011 murder

The Yomiuri Shimbun/Asia News Network

October 16, 2012

KOBE - Two bodies have been found under a house in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, during a police investigation conducted based on a source close to a woman believed to be a prime suspect in a murder that came to light last year, according to police.

The 64-year-old woman, Miyoko Sumida, is one of five people who were indicted in December on suspicion of abandoning the body of Kazuko Oe, 66. Oe's body was found encased in concrete inside a metal drum on Nov. 9 last year.

"Three bodies are in the house, and three others were killed and their bodies were abandoned at other locations in the prefecture," police quoted the source as saying.

Police continued searching the house Monday and planned to investigate other locations for additional victims. At least seven people who were acquainted with Sumida have gone missing.

The two bodies were found naked in a hole under the floor of a six-mat tatami room. One of the victims was a woman with gray hair. The body had been covered in concrete and part of her feet had decomposed.

Another body, which had also decomposed, was found about two meters from the first victim. The gender was not determined, but the deceased had 10-centimeter-long hair, the sources said.

Police believe more than one year has passed since the two died.

An 87-year-old woman who lived in the house went missing more than 10 years ago, prompting the police to suspect that one of the bodies is hers.

Of the seven missing people, two are male and five are female aged from 29 to 87.

Four of them are identified as Sumida's kin, and five of them temporarily registered their residency at the house or two other locations in the city, according to the sources.

The five who were indicted over the abandonment of Oe's body were Sumida; Sumida's cousin, 38; Oe's eldest daughter, 44; Oe's second daughter, 41; and her former husband, 42.

In February, all four except Sumida's cousin were indicted on an additional charge of beating Oe to death and unlawful confinement. The cousin received a prison sentence for abandoning the body.

Sumida knew family

According to police sources, a six-member family comprising a couple with two sons and two daughters originally lived in the house.

Around 2001, the eldest son, 69, who was a janitor at a primary school in Amagasaki, became acquainted with Sumida, who was married to a man who went to the same middle school as the son.

The family was soon on good terms with Sumida.

After the eldest son quit his job in 2002 on Sumida's advice, he moved into Sumida's apartment in the same city.

However, he went missing around 2003. By that time, the second son had already moved into Sumida's apartment. She demanded the second son pay for daily living expenses in place of the eldest son, after which he started giving his elder brother's pension payments to Sumida, the sources said.

The 87-year-old mother of the two sons had been living alone in the house, but went missing around 2002. The house has remained vacant since then.

The second son later moved out of Sumida's apartment and is believed to have died of a disease in Tokyo last year, sources said.

A police official tracked down the eldest son this summer, who lived and worked in a laborers' lodge in the city.

He had been living under a false name for many years, the police official said. "I tried to escape Sumida's place many times, but was taken back every time I tried. I'm afraid of her," he was quoted as saying.

The 87-year-old woman's 60-year-old daughter is missing.

Her granddaughter Rui, 27, who married Sumida's son in 2007, was indicted for stealing the pensions of her grandmother and her eldest son.

Rui's elder sister, 29, and her uncle, 68, are also missing.