Osaka Prefectural Police headquarters (Mainichi/Tsuyoshi Fujita)

       SAKAI, Osaka -- A 90-year-old man in this western Japan city was arrested on Nov. 24 on suspicion of setting fire to his home and killing his wife.

       Osaka Prefectural Police arrested Tatsuo Okamoto on allegations of murder and arson of an inhabited structure after strong suspicions arose that he had killed his 85-year-old wife. Okamoto was quoted as saying, "I set fire to the apartment, but I didn't intend to kill her." The prefectural police intend to investigate the suspect's motives.

       Okamoto allegedly lit a fire in the couple's apartment on the fourth floor of a housing complex in Sakai's Kita Ward at around 9 p.m. on Nov. 23, burning some 25 square meters and his wife Reiko to death. She was found face-down in one of the home's three rooms. Okamoto is a smoker, and multiple lighters were found at the scene.

       According to the prefectural police's Kitasakai Police Station, Okamoto was living with Reiko. He was hospitalized until the evening of Nov. 24 for smoke inhalation. Police say he implied his involvement in arson from the first.

       (Japanese original by Kosuke Yamamoto, Osaka City News Department)

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