A 25-year-old woman was indicted Wednesday for the alleged murder three years ago of her wealthy elderly husband who was dubbed the "Don Juan" of his locality in western Japan, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Saki Sudo caused Kosuke Nozaki, 77, to ingest a lethal amount of an illegal stimulant drug on May 24, 2018, only three months into their marriage, with the deliberate intent to kill him, according to the indictment.
The president of a liquor sales company and real estate business, Nozaki had gained notoriety for publishing an autobiography titled "Don Juan of Kishu: The Man Who Gave 3 Billion Yen to 4,000 Beautiful Women" in 2016, likening himself to the mythical Spanish playboy.
Kishu is the region in Wakayama Prefecture where he lived. Three billion yen is worth around $27.5 million.
Sudo was arrested on April 28 and has denied the charge and remained silent, according to investigative sources. As there is little direct evidence, the Wakayama District Public Prosecutors Office decided to establish guilt on the basis of circumstantial evidence.
According to the sources, analysis of Sudo's smartphone revealed that prior to the incident she had searched for information about stimulants and how to make a murder look like someone had died of an illness.
Location data on the phone also showed she had been in the same place in Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, at roughly the same time as a trafficker suspected to have provided the drug to her.
Security camera footage of Nozaki's house also did not show any other person entering or leaving during the four hours before and after dinner that he was alone with Sudo, when he is presumed to have ingested the stimulant drug.
With suicide ruled out, the prosecutors have concluded that Sudo poisoned Nozaki, according to the sources.
On Wednesday, she was also served anther arrest warrant on suspicion of lying to a 67-year-old man in Sapporo in late 2015 that she had been asked to pay money for injuring a woman and swindling him out of about 11.7 million yen on Jan. 28, 2016, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
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