Unfaithful, abusive marriage ended violently; wife handed over to state

The woman arrested Wednesday in the slaying and dismembering of her husband was sent to prosecutors Friday, and police revealed they had both been having affairs.

Kaori Mihashi, 32, was arrested Wednesday on an initial charge of abandoning the body of her husband, Yusuke, 30, a securities company employee from Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.

His body parts were found in three places around Tokyo in December and on Wednesday.

According to investigators and people close to the couple, the husband consulted close friends about divorcing his wife just before he was killed.

Police suspect that emotional entanglement between the two may be one reason for the murder as both were seeing other people, police said. The two married in March 2003.

The wife told police that they started quarreling six months after they got married, that she had been the victim of her husband's violence and that he had never apologized to her for his acts, police said.

She has admitted to clubbing her husband in the head with a wine bottle early on Dec. 12 while he was asleep after coming home drunk, police said.

"My husband had no sense of apologizing sincerely, he did not say 'I was wrong,' even once," the sources quoted Kaori Mihashi, 32, as saying following her arrest Wednesday.

IBARAKI (Kyodo) The head and torso of a male body has been found inside a vinyl bag dumped on a riverbank in Bando, Ibaraki Prefecture.

Police are trying to identify the corpse, which was found Thursday afternoon near the Yahagi River. Investigators believe the man was somewhere between 30 to 60 years old. The head had graying, short hair.

The wrists were tied with a cord and the torso was bare. The man is believed to have been dead for several days.