2 women eyed in slaying of Japanese tourist

MANILA, Philippines—Homicide investigators of the Manila Police District (MPD) are eyeing the possible involvement of two women in the killing of a 62-year-old Japanese tourist, who was found naked and with stab wounds inside his hotel room in a tourist hub in the city.

Senior Police Officer 2 Virgo Villareal of the MPD homicide section told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that an employee of the Manor Hotel along Bacobo Street in Ermita claimed seeing two women talking with Inoue Yoshihisa outside Room 509 of the hotel, hours before he was found brutally killed.

However, Villareal said that the witness, whose name he withheld, was not sure whether the Japanese allowed his female visitors into his room.

“She (the witness) is not sure if Inoue had allowed the women into his room. She just told me that when she passed by the hallway, she saw the women and when she returned after a few minutes, they were no longer there,” the case investigator said in Filipino.

Inoue, a native of Gumma, Japan, was discovered naked and dead from eight stab wounds, sitting on the bathroom floor of room 509 of the Manor Hotel at around 3:30 p.m., Sunday. The tourist’s wallet was missing and his room in total disarray.

The tourist had arrived in the country on October 30. It was learned that he regularly checked in at the hotel each time he traveled here.

Villareal pointed out it is still unclear how the killer could have slipped in and out of the hotel undetected.

“The hotel cannot even show us video footages taken by their security cameras because they said that they are not always turned on and are mostly intended to monitor the movements of the employees,” the case investigator said.

The body was found by hotel supervisor Divina Curioso and house detective Allen Barrera after they used a spare room key when the tourist failed to open the door despite their persistent knocking.

They allegedly first sensed that something was amiss when the Japanese did not answer calls made to his room by the hotel desk officer and, upon reaching his room, they heard the television in full volume.

They stumbled onto the bloodied blankets and a broken handle of a fan knife on the bed and then discovered the dead Inoue seated on the bathroom tiles, with his head resting against the toilet bowl.

Villareal said that Room 509, where Inoue’s body was discovered, was not the room where he initially checked in. “He was billeted in Room 514 until on Saturday, he requested to be transferred to a different room. Inoue complained that the room was too hot and the neighbors too noisy,” he pointed out.

The last time hotel staff reportedly saw the Japanese alive was at around 11 p.m. Saturday, when he transferred from room 514 to 509.

“The victim could have been killed some time between midnight and 3 p.m.,” the case investigator said, adding that the blood stains on the bed indicate that it was there that the attack started.

He said that the struggle was fierce, based on the depth of the gashes on the victim’s forearms, and Inoue was dragged by the killer from the bed to the bathroom. He further noted that the force employed in stabbing the victim was too much that the handle of the fan knife used, broke off.

Villareal pointed out that the statement given by the witness will help in the investigation and the hotel management had assured its cooperation in solving the murder.