Japanese couple dead, burned in Jimbaran: Bali medical examiner finds stab wounds

A medical examination of an elderly Japanese couple found dead and burned in their rented house in Jimbaran, Bali revealed stab wounds, but authorities are hesitant to label the deaths as murder.

The forensics team at Denpasar’s Sanglah Hospital performed external examinations on Matsuba Nurio, 76, and his wife, Matsuba Hiroko, 73, on Tuesday.

The couple was found dead, burned, on the second story of their rented house in Jimbaran’s Puri Gading residential area on Monday after an anak angkat, a younger person close to the couple, who came to meet them for lunch saw smoke coming out of the upstairs bedroom.

Head of Sanglah Forensics, Dr. Dudut Rustyadi says his team found a number of wounds on Nurio, including an open wound on his neck. There were also stab wounds on the man’s back and burns on the back of his head and his hamstring, the medical examiner said.

As for Hiroko, there were open wounds including stab wounds in her neck and abdomen and also some burns on her back, according to Rustyadi.

“Both had burns on their back. About 50 to 60 percent of their bodies were burned,” Rustyadi said on Tuesday, as quoted by Tribun Bali.

However, the medical examiner says he cannot yet conclude the cause of death of the two victims at this time.

“Cannot yet because they have not been autopsied. And to determine whether they were violently wounded or burned first, we must conduct a laboratory examination.”

Meanwhile, police say they are interviewing witnesses and have set up a crime scene around the house in Puri Gading.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated Matsuba Hiroko as being aged 76, based on what local media reports had published. 



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