An elderly Japanese couple was found dead inside a resort hotel on Mactan Island on Wednesday in an apparent suicide. Takao Ouchi, 70, a former television commercial director, and wife Yukiko Ouchi, 84, a former television scriptwriter, in Japan, were found dead inside Room 401 of the Blue Reef Resort in Marigondon, Lapu-lapu City, at around 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
Takao’s body was found hanging inside the comfort room by a curtain’s cord. His wife’s lifeless body was on the bed, said Insp. Christian Torres, chief of the station 4 of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office.
Torres said police noticed a cord line on her neck, and police initially theorized that she hanged first before Takao transferred her body to the bed and then hanged himself. He stated that suicide was an initial finding based on information so far gathered that no one was seen visiting the couple and that there were no signs of struggle inside the room. An alleged suicide note was found, but it was written in Japanese.
Torres said the Japanese couple had been living in Cebu for almost a decade and their Filipina friend was the first to arrive at the hotel upon recieving news of the alleged suicide.
Torres said the Filipina friend identified as Marilou Inofenia claimed that the couple previously talked about committing suicide. The Japanese woman, who was reportedly suffering from an illness, had tried to commit suicide twice. Torres said Inofenia also told investigators that the couple had planned to die together after the wife’s failed suicide attempts.
Inofenia revealed that the couple wanted to have a last honeymoon before endingtheir lives, said Torres. The couple checked in at the resort on Monday noon and were supposed to check out on Wednesday noon. When they failed to check out, the resort personnel opened up the door and found the bodies, Torres stated.
The couple had been staying in an apartment in Cebu city for about nine years. They were retirees from Japan and relied on their pensions. They had no children, according to information the police gathered from Inofenia.
Torres said Inofenia told police that the couple wanted to be buried in Cebu as they had no one in Japan who would claim their remains and that Inofenia claimed to have received a call from Takao at 6 p.m. on Tuesday to say goodbye in Japanese. “The male Japanese told her (Inofenia) sayonara,” Torres added, quoting Inofenia.
Torres said Inofenia asked Takao where his wife was and the latter told her that “mama,” his term of endearment for his wife, was already resting. He added Takao reportedly called up Inofenia because he wanted to hear the voice of a friend. He believed that was around the time of the couple’s deaths.
published @ Inquirer
