A former manga editor, who worked on the magazine where series like Attack on Titan were published, has been sentenced following a High Court trial for the murder of his wife.
Park Jung-Hyun was initially arrested in 2017 after his wife, Kanako, was found deceased at their shared residence in Bunkyo City, Japan, on August 9, 2016.
While Park maintained his innocence and the defense claimed Kanako “committed suicide”, the formal Tokyo High Court verdict ultimately concluded that the Kodansha editor strangled his wife to death.
He was formally sentenced to 11 years in prison for the “malicious” murder, with his testimony labeled by the ruling judge as “unrealistic”.
First responders initially found Kanako face-up at the bottom of a staircase, and she was confirmed dead an hour later after being transported to hospital.
Park first claimed during questioning that his wife “fell down the stairs,” but changed his story after an autopsy revealed her cause of death had been suffocation by pressure applied to the neck.
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He then instead said Kanako killed herself via hanging using his jacket on the staircase railing, blaming the change in narrative on an unwillingness to tell “his children that [their mother] committed suicide.”
When this testimony was challenged in court, Park explained discrepancies in his story by stating his wife had been acting violently before committing suicide. Park alleged bloodstains found in the bedroom were the result of having to hold Kanako down, as she supposedly had a knife.
He later claimed to have heard a noise outside the room, which is when he is said to have found her suicide. The prosecution fought these claims, insisting Park had “strong intent” to murder his wife and seeking a 15-year sentence.
Following the ruling on July 18, 2024, the judge agreed that Park’s reasoning was not credible, stating, “It is too sudden and unnatural that the wife lost consciousness and then moved around so much that she made a noise, and then committed suicide.”