The 15-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of murdering three of a family of six in Oita Prefecture earlier this month has confessed to breaking into the family's home a few days before the killings to steal money, investigative sources said Saturday.
The boy reportedly used a stepladder to enter the Iwasaki family's house in the town of Notsu, just south of the prefectural capital of Oita, but left the stepladder behind.
The youth retrieved the stepladder and dumped it into a nearby river a few days before the Aug. 14 killings, the sources said.
Sumiko Iwasaki, 66, her daughter Tomoko, 41, and Tomoko's son Junya, 13, died from stab wounds inflicted during the early morning attack. Sumiko's husband Kazumasa Iwasaki, 66, a farmer, remains unconscious and in critical condition with severe wounds to his head, while Tomoko's 16-year-old daughter Mai sustained severe wounds to the back. Her other son Seiya, 11, sustained injuries to his throat.