Cult Killing in Japan

(Nagano, Japan) This story has everything. Female death cult, secret curing water, gang-murder, evidence tampering and concealment, ransacked sushi restaurant and family members arrested. The only thing missing is Godzilla.

For the murder of a 63-year-old woman, about 20 members, ages 15 to 80, of the female Kigenkai religious cult were arrested yesterday in conjunction with the woman's family members. Authorities were initially alerted by hospital staff who noticed that the woman had been beaten to death.

Four related members of holy water cult Kigenkai who were arrested in connection with the fatal gang bashing of a sushi restaurant owner fear reprisals and may be covering up the involvement of other cultists in the elderly woman's death, police said Tuesday.

Komoro Police Station investigators suspect the four relatives of 63-year-old sushi restaurant owner Motoko Okuno, who were sent to prosecutors on suspicion of causing her death, may be keeping quiet about other Kigenkai cultists' roles in the alleged attack.

It is believed the assault on Okuno was instigated by the cult's matriarch and another 21 women members of the religious group have already been arrested in connection with the case.

Police said Okuno was fatally gang-bashed at Kigenkai headquarters in Komoro, Nagano Prefecture, on the night of Sept. 24 and into the early hours of the following morning. Her 35-year-old husband, Kazuhiro, and 37-year-old daughter, Kuriko Mori, were indicted by prosecutors for inflicting bodily injury causing death.

Another daughter, Michiko, 26, and her husband, Yuji Ike, 30, have been arrested for inflicting bodily injury resulting in death and also face the additional charge of concealing evidence.

Police said the four had talked amongst themselves to decide what to tell investigators about Okuno's death so that only they took the blame and no other cultists became involved.

Police added that Michiko and Yuji Ike had turned tables and chairs over in Okuno's restaurant to make it look as though she had been beaten there and not at the cult's lair.

The Kigenkai cult is described as a matriarchy with about 400 followers throughout Japan.