Police have arrested a 37-year-old Japanese housewife after her husband found the corpse of a new-born baby in the family freezer, an official said today.
Yukie Masuda was arrested Friday after her 50-year-old husband found the frozen baby wrapped in a bath towel and plastic bag, said the official at Kabe Police Station in western Japan. She was arrested on suspicion of abandoning a dead body, an offence punishable by up to three years in prison.
The woman has admitted she gave birth to the baby boy around September 2002 and left him in the freezer in a shed, the official said, adding it was still not clear whether the baby was stillborn.
"The husband found the body when he was sorting out the mess in the freezer," which is nearly one metre high and contained all sorts of frozen foods, the police official said. "We are investigating the cause of the baby's death, her motive and other details," he said.
AFP
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