A 31-year-old Filipino on an international wanted list for suspected involvement in a 2004 rape and murder in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, admitted his guilt to Kyodo News in an interview Thursday.
In the interview, which took place in a Manila suburb, the man expressed remorse for the attack on a 21-year-old student of Ibaraki University, on Jan. 31, 2004, and said that he still remembers her.
He is one of two suspected accomplices in the attack who were placed on the wanted list following the arrest of Lampano Jerico Mori, 35, by Ibaraki prefectural police on Sept. 2 on suspicion of killing the woman.
The man, who was a minor when the incident occurred, claimed that Mori, a resident of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, prior to his arrest, was the leader of the attack.
He returned to the Philippines in 2007 and confessed his involvement to relatives immediately afterward.
According to his aunt, he has not been mentally sound since his return, which she blamed on his use of illegal drugs while in Japan from 2003 to 2007.
The woman's naked body was found in a river in a village in Ibaraki, northeast of Tokyo. Investigative sources said DNA collected from the victim's body matched Mori's.