On Nov. 20, attendants bid final farewell to Uehara sisters who were slain in Osaka on Nov. 17 at their funeral service.

Firefighters found Asuka, 27, and Chihiro Uehara, 19, at around 3:40 a.m. when they arrived at the apartment to extinguish the fire.

They had stab wounds in the chest, arms and elsewhere, and the police found a 16.5-cm cooking knife, believed to be the murder weapon.

The firefighters, who were responding to a call from a resident in the apartment block, quickly put out the fire before it could spread beyond the 30-sq.-meter apartment.

When they arrived, the apartment door and windows were locked. As the door could be locked from outside without a card key, the police believe the murderer left the scene after locking the apartment.

Several residents of the building told the police they had heard screams as well as voices that sounded like a quarrel between a man and a woman from around 2 a.m. to 3:30 a.m.

The Japan Times Weekly: Nov. 26, 2005
(C) All rights reserved