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[Dave Chance]

http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/black-widow-murder-suspect-kijima-fields-prosecutions-questions

SAITAMA �
Details have begun to emerge from the trial of Kanae Kijima, 37, the woman who is accused of murder following the suspicious deaths of three men in Saitama, Tokyo and Chiba in 2009.

Kijima, who has been dubbed the �black widow� killer, this week answered the prosecution�s questions relating to her withdrawing a large sum of money from the bank account of 80-year-old Kenzo Ando and about the charcoal burner with which she is accused of murdering another man, Yoshiyuki Oide.

In response to the accusation that she stole money from Ando�s bank account, Kijima reportedly said that Ando asked her to withdraw the money for him, NTV reported. When asked why evidence of a charcoal burner, a common method of suicide in Japan, had been found in her car she replied that she put one in the trunk when she moved house.

Because there is no evidence that directly links Kijima to the murders, the prosecution has been focusing on details such as the suicide paraphernalia Kijima is believed to have purchased online and the money that her alleged victims transferred into her bank accounts.

According to NTV, Oide was found dead on the back seat of his rented car near Tokyo in 2009 in an apparent suicide. The car contained a charcoal burner of the type which had been used in a growing number of suicides in Japan. However, investigators were puzzled to find there were no keys in the ignition.

Suspicions were further aroused when it emerged that less than 24 hours before his death, Oide had written about Kijima on his blog, writing, �At 41, I�m actually looking forward to getting married, and today I�ll meet my partner�s family,� NTV reported.

An autopsy showed that Oide had died from carbon monoxide poisoning, but that his blood also contained traces of sleeping pills. Just before his death, he had transferred 5 million yen to Kijima�s bank account.

Kijima is suspected of murdering Oide and as many as five other men she met via online marriage sites, by drugging them with sleeping pills and disguising their deaths as suicides or accidents.

Kijima, a mother of five, would reportedly agree to marriage and then claim to be in desperate need of cash to complete her studies before she could go through with the marriage.

According to one weekly magazine, in an email to a 70-year-old lover, she claimed that her parents had been killed in a plane crash and that she needed money to complete her music studies in the U.S. The man was later found dead at his home.

Police say that Kijima, who claims to have worked as a nurse and a piano teacher, possessed multiple prescriptions for sleeping pills of the type found in her alleged victims. According to police, there is also evidence that she bought the items needed to cause carbon monoxide poisoning over the Internet.

Though she lived in an inexpensive rented apartment, Kijima was known to write about her extravagant lifestyle on her blog and was reportedly seen turning up to dates at luxury hotels in a red Mercedes.

Counsel for the defense is reportedly attempting to convince the jury that the deaths of Kijima�s lovers could all have been accidents or suicides. The jury�s services have been requested for an extended period as the trial is expected to last for up to 100 days. In total, 63 witnesses are to be called, NTV reported.

[ThingsComeAround]

She is NOT HOT. These men must have been desperate!

[Dave Chance]

^^No kidding.

Either she had a major overhaul after high school, or she must have some discrete charms and powers at her disposal that we are unable to fathom

[The Floating World]

Why are so many people posting news in the off topic forum rather than the CE forum?

[Dave Chance]

http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/black-widow-sentenced-to-death-for-murder-of-3-men

Kanae Kijima, 37, the woman accused of murder following the suspicious deaths of three men in Saitama, Tokyo and Chiba in 2009, was sentenced to death by a panel of lay judges at the end of her trial at the Saitama District Court on Friday.

Kijima, who has been dubbed the �black widow� killer, was convicted of murdering three men and is suspected of killing as many as five other men she met via online marriage sites, by drugging them with sleeping pills and disguising their deaths as suicides or accidents.

Kijima, who has a past as a paid-for mistress, killed the men by poisoning them with carbon monoxide from burning charcoal briquettes after giving them sleeping tablets.

The court heard how she had wanted to stop them from demanding back money she had taken from them over the course of brief relationships.

�Three times she carried out extremely serious and vicious crimes,� presiding judge Kazuyuki Ohkuma said.

The thick-set Kijima, who according to media reports appeared in court wearing a short skirt, committed the crimes �in order to maintain her luxurious life full of vainglory without working,� the judge said.