A suicide note left by a man who was found drowned in Saitama Prefecture in 1995 is believed to have been forged, police sources investigating a series of alleged murder-for-insurance scams said Tuesday.
The sources said police are trying to determine whether Shuichi Sato's suicide note to his Filipino wife, Analie Mendoza, was faked.
Sato, 45, was found drowned in the Tone River in June 1995.
At the time, police determined after examining the suicide note that Sato had committed suicide. Analie, 34, whose full name is Analie Sato Kawamura, subsequently received 302 million yen, of which about 280 million yen went to Shigeru Yagi, a 50-year-old moneylender at the center of the alleged insurance scams.