b v careful

Aug 7, 2005
Man kills three through fake suicide pacts online
TOKYO - A MAN has confessed to killing three people, including a 14-year-old boy, by forming fake suicide pacts through websites that contained information on group suicide, according to a newspaper.
Hiroshi Maeue, 36, told police he suffocated to death a young woman, a college student and the boy and filmed the killings for his enjoyment, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday.
He was arrested on Friday over the death of the female victim, 25-year-old Michiko Nagamoto from the western city of Osaka.
Maeue, a temp agency employee, had found her on a suicide website and sent her 20 e-mail messages urging that they die together.
He suggested burning charcoal in a sealed car to end their lives by carbon monoxide poisoning. Instead, he tied her up in a rented car and killed her by sealing her nose and mouth with his hands, according to a police statement.
'I wanted to watch a face in agony,' he was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
After killing the woman, he searched for more victims through suicide websites and killed the boy and the university student. He allegedly dumped their bodies in nearby mountains and a dam.
Japan has seen a spate of Internet suicides, with lonely people forming pacts online with strangers to support one another as they die. At least 65 people have died in such pacts since October. -- AFP