Mother Pushes 9-Year-Old Son To His Death From 23rd Floor Of Hotel

A Japanese mother was arrested for allegedly throwing her 9-year-old son from the 23rd floor of a hotel in Tokyo. The 47-year-old woman confessed to cops about pushing the boy and said the child’s death was the outcome of an attempted murder-suicide.

The woman and her two children had checked into the hotel Tuesday, a day before the 9-year-old boy fell to his death. The three were staying on the 17th floor of the establishment in Kabukicho, a red-light district in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.

On Wednesday morning, the mother took her son and 7-year-old daughter to the 23rd floor and pushed the boy off the building from the emergency stairs of the hotel, according to Japan Today.

The boy plummeted down nearly two dozen stories before crashing into the ground. An on-duty police officer nearby heard a loud thud at around 7 a.m. and rushed to find the child lying on the ground. When the officer looked up, he caught sight of the mother on the emergency stairs of the 23rd floor. He went upstairs and found the woman in the hotel’s corridor, according to Latin Times.

The woman later admitted to cops that she pushed her son whilst attempting a murder-suicide with her children. Investigators are currently trying to find the motive behind the murder and establish whether the mother really did want to throw herself off the building.

"There is no doubt that I pushed him down with the intention to kill him. I was thinking of committing forced double suicide," the mother said, according to the interview that cops gave Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbun, as reported by VICE.

A similar incident, reported earlier this year in May, saw a woman in South Africa fatally poison her two children in an attempted murder-suicide.

In the events that led to the children being declared dead, the mother had frantically knocked on her neighbor’s door in the morning with her 3-month-old infant in her arms. She placed the baby on the floor before going back home to bring her 9-year-old son as well. The mother told the neighbor that she fed the children poison and drank some herself. She then collapsed on the floor, according to police officer Thandi Mbamo.

The two children were declared dead at the scene after police arrived. The mother was rushed to a local hospital and received medical attention. Two cases of murder were registered against the woman as she recovered in the hospital, the police said.