Vietnamese man re-arrested on suspicion of robbery and murder in case of dead body of woman in Hanno, Saitama

On the 8th, the Saitama Prefectural Police announced that they had re-arrested Pham Cao Lien Cong (33), an unemployed Vietnamese national with no fixed abode, charged with burglary and abandonment of a corpse, on suspicion of robbery-murder and burglary of the woman's home after the body of a woman (age 91 at the time) was found in a mountain forest in Hanno City, Saitama Prefecture. Although Pham admitted that he broke into the woman's home for the purpose of stealing and killed her, he also denied some of the charges, saying, ``I had no intention of stealing the car from the beginning, and I got into the car as a means of escape.''

According to the First Investigation Division, on July 29, Pham broke into Kinuko Maruyama's home in Iruma City, Saitama Prefecture. On the same day, between 4:20 p.m. and 11:05 p.m., when Maruyama came home from a daycare service, he strangled her with both hands and suffocated her to death, and is suspected of stealing a car in his son's name and the engine key from Maruyama's house. Pham also reportedly told investigators, ``I didn't take the car keys from the victim, but the victim gave them to me.''

According to the indictment and other documents, between July 29 and 30, Pham allegedly removed the body from Maruyama's house in a car owned by Maruyama's son and abandoned it in a forest in Hanno City. According to prefectural police, the body was found based on a statement from Pham, who was arrested on the night of August 1st on suspicion of breaking into another private home.