A man arrested last week for fatally stabbing a 24-year-old woman in Kobe said he targeted her because she was his ¡°type,¡± according to investigative sources.
Investigators also found that Masashi Tanimoto, 35, had allegedly followed a different woman home prior to last week¡¯s incident. They believe he had been looking for a potential target.
The victim, Megumi Katayama, was found dead in front of the elevator of her apartment building in Kobe on Aug. 20. Tanimoto was arrested two days later for allegedly stabbing her.
¡°I spotted her walking on a street on the morning of Aug. 18. I followed her and saw her walk into an office building,¡± Tanimoto reportedly told investigators.
He then loitered around the building to confirm that she worked there, he reportedly said.
He told police that the victim was someone he ¡°didn¡¯t know at all.¡±
According to his boss at a logistics company in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward, Tanimoto had been on leave between Aug. 17 and 21, saying he would be going back to his hometown. He arrived in Kobe on Aug. 17 and stayed at a hotel near the victim¡¯s workplace.
Tanimoto is suspected of stalking a different woman on the street on the day he arrived in Kobe, following her home and getting into her apartment building by slipping through the autolock system ¡ª similar to what he did with Katayama.
The woman found this odd and successfully managed to escape. She notified the Hyogo Prefectural Police of the incident following news reports of Katayama¡¯s murder.
On Aug. 20, Tanimoto followed Katayama home from work for nearly 50 minutes over a distance of 4 kilometers, footage from multiple security cameras showed.
He slipped through the autolock doors of her apartment after she had opened them and followed her into the elevator, where he is believed to have fatally stabbed her multiple times with a 15-centimeter knife.
Tanimoto had been convicted in 2022 for stalking and injuring a woman he saw on the street. According to court records, he developed one-sided feelings for the woman and waited around her home before slipping past the building¡¯s autolock door system after her and attacking her.
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