A former caregiver at a nursing home in Tokyo was arrested Tuesday for drowning an 83-year-old resident at the facility in August, police said.
Hisashi Minakawa, 25, has admitted to the murder, the police said. The victim, Kan Fujisawa, "had repeatedly wet the bed and I couldn't stand it anymore," Minakawa was quoted by the police as saying.
Fujisawa, a former deputy headmaster at an established private high school in Tokyo, had suffered Parkinson's disease and had problems in the lower body.
The killing took place early morning of Aug. 22. Minakawa lost his temper after Fujisawa wet the bed multiple times the previous night. He strangled the victim and threw him into a bathtub and drew hot water, according to the police.
Minakawa was on a night shift with another worker on the night of the homicide but alone with Fujisawa in the bathing facility.
Prior to the arrest he had told the police he found the victim dead after he was away tending an emergency call within the nursing home. But there was no record of such a call, according to the police.
The police launched the murder investigation after spotting evidence of strangling, a broken bone, in Fujisawa's throat. Minakawa quit his job at the facility in late September.
Yukio Akiyama, head of the nursing home's operator Nichii Carepalace Co., a group company of Nichiigakkan Co., said, "We will fully cooperate with the police investigation. We will also take measures to prevent such an incident from happening again," in a statement.
