Murder suspect sent confession e-mail

TSUCHIURA, Ibaraki Prefecture--A man arrested after last Sunday's stabbing rampage at a train station here sent a cellphone e-mail message to his mother two days earlier confessing to an earlier murder, police said Friday.

Masahiro Kanagawa, 24, was arrested on suspicion of killing Yoshikazu Miura at his home in the city four days previously. His arrest came hours after witnesses said he fatally stabbed a man and injured seven others in and around JR Arakawaoki Station on the Joban Line here.

According to police, on the morning of March 21, while Kanagawa was on the run from the police, he sent an e-mail message from his cellphone to his mother that read, "The criminal (of the murder) is me. You will see more victims."

Police believe the message is key to ascertaining when Kanagawa decided to indiscriminately attack passers-by at the train station.

Police said Kanagawa emerged as a suspect in the slaying of Miura, 72, when they checked a bicycle that he left near Miura's house.

Kanagawa did not return to his home after the first incident.

He sent the message shortly before police put him on a nationwide wanted list March 21 in connection with Miura's murder.

Police quoted him as telling them after last Sunday's stabbing spree that he had intended to kill seven to eight people at Arakawaoki Station.

Investigators are trying to determine why he sent the message to his mother and what led him to decide to kill people at random.

Earlier, police discovered that Kanagawa also sent e-mail messages from the cellphone to another handset he had left at home. In these messages, he used words that suggested he felt he was divine.(IHT/Asahi: March 29,2008)