Noriyuki Iimori, center, is seen being transported to prosecutors, on March 2, 2025, in Yao, Osaka Prefecture. (Mainichi/Tadashi Kako)
OSAKA — A man served a fresh arrest warrant on suspicion of murder after the body of a girl was found encased in concrete in a residential building in Yao, Osaka Prefecture, claimed that he had assaulted the girl to discipline her, police told the Mainichi Shimbun.
The victim was Reina Iwamoto, the daughter of suspect Noriyuki Iimori’s older sister. The girl, who was 6 years old at the time of her death, was left with Iimori due to family matters, and Osaka Prefectural Police are investigating the circumstances of her death in detail.
Unemployed 41-year-old Iimori is suspected of killing Reina between December 2006 and January 2007 at his home in Osaka’s Hirano Ward by acts including kicking her in the left side of her abdomen. Iimori has reportedly denied any intent to kill, telling investigators, “I didn’t intend to kill her.”
Iimori, who has been indicted for abandoning the corpse, has told the prefectural police that he hit Reina as hard as he could as a form of discipline more than 10 years ago. He also reportedly stated that he was “angry because she didn’t listen to me” and acknowledged hitting her face multiple times and kicking her in the abdomen.
It is believed that Reina sustained a fatal injury from the kick to her left abdomen, which caused damage to her internal organs and led to traumatic shock from bleeding.
Reina was born in October 2000 and had been living with Iimori’s older sister and their father, who is in his 80s, in Yao since around 2002. However, she was taken into Iimori’s care after his sister left and his father could no longer care for her.
On Feb. 28 this year, the prefectural police broke open the concrete, discovering Reina’s body inside.
(Japanese original by Mizuki Hayashi and Tomoe Saito, Osaka City News Department)
AloJapan.com