Widow model, 28, who Googled ‘perfect crime’ and ‘elderly death’ is acquitted of murdering husband, 77, who died of mysterious drug overdose three months after they married
A young Japanese widower who Googled words like “perfect crime” and “elderly death” has been acquitted of her husband’s murder, six years after he died of a mysterious drug overdose.
Saki Sudo, 28, was acquitted after prosecutors in the city of Wakayama failed to prove to judges that she killed her 77-year-old writer husband Kosuke Nozaki in May 2018.
Nozaki, who wrote a best-selling book titled The Don Juan of Kishu, in which he bragged about spending millions pursuing his “boundless desire to have sex with beautiful women,” was murdered just three months after his marriage with Sudo found dead in his home in Tanabe.
The 28-year-old, a model, was the only person present at the time of her husband’s death, and prosecutors accused her of drugging him for his 1.3 billion yen (£8.6 million) fortune to inherit.
There were no spray marks on his body, which strengthened the suspicion that he had been poisoned.
Eighteen days earlier, his dog had also died unexpectedly.
Sudo has always maintained her innocence, but she admitted that she bought the drugs at her husband’s request.
And although prosecutors discovered that she had Googled the words “perfect crime” and “elderly death,” she successfully argued that they had been looked up out of curiosity.
The 28-year-old, a model, was the only person present at the time of her husband’s death, and prosecutors accused her of drugging him to inherit his £8.6million fortune.
Saki Sudo, 28, has been acquitted after being accused of poisoning her wealthy 77-year-old husband Nozaki Kosuke in 2018
Sudo has always maintained her innocence, but she admitted that she bought the drugs at her husband’s request
Nozaki’s best-selling 2016 memoir chronicled his sexual escapades in which he wrote, “My purpose in life is to have sex with beautiful women. It will never change… and there is no retirement age.”
He published a follow-up to his wedding to Sudo, in which he said: “People ask me, ‘Can you really do it?’, and I answer, ‘Oh yes, on average three times a day.’ I have never used Viagra, but I am always strong. There is a risk that I might die during intercourse, but going to heaven like this is exactly what I want.”
Nozaki built his fortune from nothing, selling everything from scrap metal to condoms and liquor, according to the book’s publisher’s website.
In a column Nozaki wrote for the Gendai Business website in 2018 – months before his death – he said that he was “confident of becoming happy” by marrying Sudo, even though people had warned him that they was probably after his money.
He said they met at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport when he purposely stumbled to ask Sudo, who he said was a model, to help him.
In previous columns, Nozaki said he began to rise to prominence in Japan after a 2016 incident in which a 27-year-old woman he met and dated stole 60 million yen in cash and goods from him.