Mother, 3 children dead in apparent murder-suicide in Tokyo

A 36-year-old woman and her three sons, aged 16, 11 and 9, died after being found unconscious in their home, in what police believe was a murder-suicide, on Friday.

According to police, the woman’s husband, who is in his 40s, returned to the family’s home in Nishitokyo at around 5:45 p.m., NTV reported. The man couldn’t open the door because it was chain-locked. He called 110 and said he could hear loud noises coming from the second floor.

Police broke into the house and found the man’s wife and their three sons, all unconscious.

The mother and eldest son were found, with stab wounds, in a room on the second floor. A blood-stained ax and knife were on the floor. The other two children were lying on a bed in another room with strangulation marks on their necks, police said.

All four were taken to hospital were they were pronounced dead.

The incident occurred in a quiet residential area approximately 1.5 kilometers north of Hoya Station on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line.