Police in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, on Tuesday arrested a 21-year-old woman on suspicion of murder after she stuffed a towel in her 90-year-old grandmother’s mouth, causing her to suffocate to death.

According to police, Akane Matsubara, who works as a kindergarten teacher, called 110 at around 7 a.m. and said she had killed her grandmother, Sankei Shimbun reported. Police rushed to the house in Suma Ward and found the grandmother, Aiko Matsubara, lying unconscious in the living room with a small wet towel protruding from her mouth. She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Police initially arrested Matsubara on suspicion of attempted murder but upgraded the charge to murder.

Police quoted Matsubara as saying she was using the towel to clean her grandmother when she started getting upset, so she stuffed the towel into her mouth.

Matsubara and her grandmother lived by themselves.

© Japan Today