By Ronron
May 9, 2005
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte – Police is facing a blank wall in its investigation on the murder last weekend of a Japanese national in Solsona town, located some 37 kilometers east of this city, as probers still could not ascertain the motive of the crime and the identities of the attackers.
This even as the Solsona Municipal Station invited yesterday six men for questioning on their possible involvement in the crime because of their suspicious timely disappearance from the town a day before Shinya Takemoto was found dead by his Filipina wife at the couple’s residence.
Takemoto, 59, was discovered dawn of Saturday by his wife, Mary Jane, lying lifeless on the floor of their bedroom located at the adjacent unit of their residence in Sitio Cabaruan, Barangay Mariquet in Solsona.
He sustained 11 hacked and incise wounds and two fracture wounds all over his body, according to Solsona Municipal Health Officer Dr. Ruth de Lara.
“We’re like in search for a piece of needle in a hill of rice stalk. That is the situation now,” Solsona Chief of Police Joven Aldos described to Manila Shimbun the state of their investigation on Takemoto’s case.
The only ray of hope seen by the family of the victim is that police is initiating a move towards the identification of the suspect/s through the questioning starting yesterday of six jobless male neighbors of the Takemoto’s.
“We invited six persons for questioning because that afternoon prior to the incident, they suddenly left the town all together. We will interview them one by one to find out if they will disclose similar accounts (about their activity that afternoon of May 6),” Aldos said.
The six, Aldos clarified, are not considered suspect as of this time.
According to him, the six guys, age ranging from 22 – 24, are residents of Barangay Mariquet and separately live about a kilometer away from Takemoto’s house.
Although there is no information that they were hostile to the Japanese and to the latter’s family, police are not discounting the possibility that it could be their “trip” to kill the foreigner borne out of alcohol-influence.
Police learned that five of the six who were invited by police had a drinking session that afternoon. Then, at about 5:30 pm, they, and the sixth person, left together for Laoag City by boarding a bus.
Two of the six reportedly came home only last Sunday, while the rest arrived in the town only yesterday.
Initial questioning revealed that the six just wanted to apply for a job vacancy as laborers in Laoag City.
“They all denied involvement in the killing of Takemoto when we asked them categorically,” Aldos bared, adding that the six have no criminal records at the police station.
Nonetheless, their fingerprints were taken yesterday for comparison to the set of 20 fingerprints lifted at the crime scene.
Aldos said the results of the comparative tests of fingerprints will surely lighten up their job, but as to when it will come out, he still does not know.
The fingerprints were taken to the Provincial Police crime laboratory in Laoag City, together with the blood samples.
Meanwhile, according to de Lara, Takemoto was already dead six hours or more from the time she examined his body at 10 am last Saturday because it was already stiff. Mary Jane saw his husband’s dead body at 3:55 am.
Neighbors, the closest of them were some 50 meters away from the Takemoto’s, insisted they have not heard any sound of commotion on the eve of May 7. Mary Jane issued the same claim.
They also could not identify any person/s hostile to the victim, or to his family, because the Takemoto’s rarely go out or invite visitors to their residence.
The Takemoto couple started to live permanently in Solsona in May 2004, after staying in Japan for two years since they were married in Las Pinas City on January 2002.
Takemoto, who used to work as manager at a paper manufacturing company in Chiba prefecture, decided to stay for good in the Philippines because “he liked it here, especially the weather,” said Mary Jane.
Mary Jane is all praises for her husband, whom she described to be a rare Japanese man for being so kind and respectful to women and responsible to his children.
She said Takemoto was just confined to their residence when he was still alive, and was already happy drinking his J&B scotch whisky alone.
The couple survived even without having any business through the savings of Takemoto from working in Japan.
Takemoto is divorced and has three kids in his previous marriage.
His remains will be buried in Solsona./DMS
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