Osaka woman accused of killing newborn in septic tank: ‘I heard her first cry’

OSAKA (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police have applied fresh charges of murder to a 31-year-old woman whose baby girl died after she gave birth in a toilet of her residence in Hirakata City last month, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Apr. 19).

According to police, Tomomi Ishii, of no known occupation, has admitted to dropping her newborn from the toilet into its septic tank while the girl was alive on March 30.

Later that day, a maintenance employee found the body of the baby floating in the septic tank of the two-floor residence and alerted police.

Police subsequently arrested Ishii on suspicion of abandoning a corpse. “After labor came, I gave birth in the toilet,” the woman was quoted by the Katano Police Station. “Because I am living in poverty, I thought that I couldn’t raise the child.”

Ishii lives at the residence with her mother, older brother and two children. On the day that she gave birth, she felt labor pains around midnight, she told police, adding that the birth took place that morning.

“I heard her first cry,” Ishii told police.

According to police, an examination of the child’s lungs and stomach that the she lived for some time in the tank before likely succumbing to suffocation.

“I thought that pregnancy would cause inconvenience to my family,” Ishii told police. “I thought that it would be inconvenient for my family if I gave birth.”