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9TH LD: 3 arrested over baby kidnapping case in Sendai+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)SENDAI, Jan. 9_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING IN 4TH GRAF) Police rescued a newborn baby early Sunday morning some 50 hours after he was snatched from a hospital in Sendai and arrested three people later in the day on suspicion of kidnapping the baby for ransom, they said. The three are Nobuyasu Nemoto, 54-year-old garment distributor, his Filipino wife Carmencita, 35, and their relative Kazuyoshi Sato, 32, who are believed to have been involved in the abduction of Shu Yamada from Hikarigaoka Spellman Hospital in the northeastern Japan city on Friday where the infant was in bed with his mother, the police said. The couple, of the town of Shichigahama in Miyagi Prefecture, and Sato, of Sendai's Miyagino Ward, confessed to carrying out the abduction, the police said. Specifically, the police said, Nemoto, who the police said is a heavily indebted man, snatched the baby boy from the hospital and later telephoned the hospital to demand 61.5 million yen in ransom. The police began searching the house of Nemoto and his wife in Shichigahama shortly after midnight Sunday. Shu, 11 days old at the time of the abduction, was found unhurt at another hospital in Sendai on Sunday morning after a man called the Hikarigaoka Spellman Hospital at around 5:38 a.m., claiming he had released the baby near the state-run medical center. Shu was wearing the same clothes as at the time of the abduction and was wrapped in a blanket. The baby's identity was confirmed by his 23-year-old mother Yumi and 27-year-old father Hitoshi. The baby's temperature was relatively low at 36.3 C when he was rescued, but it subsequently returned to a normal level after doctors warmed up his body with an incubator. The doctors said the kidnappers are believed to have fed the baby as his weight has increased by some 100 grams since the abduction. The kidnappers demanded 61.5 million yen in ransom from Sanae Shimura, director of the Hikarigaoka Spellman Hospital, in a threatening letter which was found early Saturday put up on a glass door of a newspaper distributor's shop near the hospital, according to the police. The letter also suggested the abductor has some grudge against Shimura. In accordance with the instructions in the letter, the 59-year-old director took a train from JR Sendai Station Saturday evening with the ransom to arrive in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, shortly after 11 p.m. He was then ordered by the kidnapper via mobile phone to take a taxi to a parking area in Higashimatsushima on the Sanriku Expressway in the prefecture. The culprit said he would release the baby six hours after receiving the money, the police said. Shimura moved to the parking area around midnight, and about half an hour later, the man told him to proceed to a traffic sign on the expressway 9 kilometers from the parking area and wait there for 10 minutes. He waited there until 3 a.m., but returned to his hospital at around 3:30 a.m. as the abductor did not contact him further. The abductor called the hospital about two hours later informing them of the release of the baby, the police said. In the letter, the culprit apologized to Shu's parents for the abduction and suggested he had committed the crime over an unresolved dispute with the hospital director, noting, "It may have been something trivial for the hospital director, but he owns me something big." Shimura, however, told reporters he has no idea what the comment is in reference to. Shu was snatched from the hospital at around 3:40 a.m. Friday, after a man falsely claimed a fire started there. The man had first gone to the nurses' station on the hospital's third floor asking to meet with the director before entering the baby's room. The police identified the suspects based partly on information about a suspicious car, investigative sources said. Following the release of the baby, Shimura met with the baby's parents, who demanded he improve hospital security, including with the installment of security cameras, and take closer care of patients and their babies. After the meeting, Shimura told reporters, "I apologized to the parents. I would like to improve what can be improved at my hospital." |