Woman runs to store clerk with ‘please help me’ written on piece of paper after her lips were sewn shut. Then the cops arrest her 49yo roommate

A 49-year-old woman has been arrested after a bizarre incident in which her female roommate escaped from their shared home with her lips sewn together and desperately seeking help.

As per Asian News Network, the incident took place in Koga, Japan on June 29, with Masae Sakurai accused by police of sewing the 42-year-old victim’s lips shut with a needle and thread. A day later, on June 30, the roommate escaped from the home and ran to a nearby store with a face mask on. She gave the clerk a piece of paper reading “please help me” as she was unable to speak.

The store clerk contacted the cops, who arrested Sakurai on suspicion of assault and transported the victim to hospital, where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. A report in Japan Wire says the victim and Sakurai had been living together for about a year, with The Japan Times saying Sakurai let people who “ran away from their homes” move in with her.

Cops interviewed the victim, who reportedly told them she was terrified of Sakurai, saying: “I was afraid of Sakurai, so I couldn’t escape right away.” The cops are now investigating what was going on in this house, with the article quoting people interviewed on TV Asahi who alleged that Sakurai was taking in random people and helping them find jobs.

Sakurai’s motive for sewing up her roommate’s mouth is unknown, and it’s unclear whether she has admitted to the offence or not.

Has this happened before?

Sewing someone’s mouth shut is an extremely unusual crime, and there are only a handful of other documented cases around the world. One took place in Pennsylvania in 2014, where a mother was charged with trying to sew her 16-year-old adopted daughter’s mouth closed, though she stopped after the needle first pierced her lower lip.

Also in 2014, a Chinese father was accused of torturing his 11-year-old daughter by sewing her mouth shut with fishing wire, along with burning, beating, and starving her. The girl was found wandering aimlessly and required hospital treatment.

There were also unconfirmed reports of ISIS militants sewing hostages’ mouths shut in 2014 as punishment for speaking of the group’s defeats. The Sun reported a source as saying people “casually discussed with them the defeat of Daesh and offensive operations in Nineveh. Later, all four people were caught. Right where they were standing, their mouths were sewn up with metal wire.”

It should be underlined that Japan is an extremely safe country with a low crime rate. Recently cops have tangled with a man caught squirting an unidentified liquid on conveyor belt sushi, and authorities were left baffled after tangling with an “extremely intelligent” bear.