TOKYO – A Japanese woman, who said she hid her mother’s corpse in a freezer at her apartment for a decade, told police that she feared eviction if the death was discovered, local media reported today.

Police told that Yumi Yoshino, 48, is being held “on suspicion of abandoning and hiding a female body” found on Wednesday inside the freezer at the apartment here.

Yoshino said she hid the body 10 years ago because she “didn’t want to move out” of the home she shared with her mother after finding her dead, said media outlets, citing unnamed police sources.

The mother, thought to be around 60 at the time of her death, was named on the lease of the apartment in a municipal housing complex, said Kyodo News.

Yoshino was forced to leave the apartment in mid-January after missing rent payments, said reports, and a cleaner discovered the body in a freezer hidden in a closet.

An autopsy could not determine the time and cause of the woman’s death.

ads