Woman complains to cops after hitman she hired fails to get the job done

A woman who hired a hitman to murder the wife of her lover, and then complained to police when he didn't do the job, has been arrested along with the hitman, police said.

The murderous intentions of Eriko Kawaguchi, a Tokyo Fire Fighting Department employee, came to light after she complained to police because the hitman didn't carry out the job, although she paid him about 15 million yen.

"I came to know that the wife gave birth and then I felt betrayed (by the lover)," officers quoted Kawaguchi, 32, as saying about her motive for hiring the hitman.

Kawaguchi, from the Tokyo suburb of Tama, phoned Takaharu Tabe, 40, from Kunitachi, after she read Tabe's web page on the Internet in November last year, police said.

In January this year, Kawaguchi met Tabe in Tachikawa, requesting that he murder the wife of her lover.

In due course she paid him a total of some 15 million yen for the murder and the costs of tailing and keeping watch on the target.

Tabe offered to murder the target by taking her on a motorbike into a tunnel and pouring poisonous bacteria over her.

Tabe then showed photos of the home and working place of the woman to Kawaguchi.

He even gave white powder to Kawaguchi and said he used it to murder the 32-year-old target.

But the wife of Kawaguchi's lover was never attacked and recently gave birth.

Six months later, Kawaguchi then went to the Tama Chuo Police Station and made a complaint, police said. Officers are grilling Tabe about the possibility of other murder contracts. (Mainichi)