In the latest development in a string of home robberies hitting greater Tokyo, the fingerprints of a man arrested for suspected unlawful confinement matched those left at the scenes of two other cases, leading police to suspect that he was involved in all three crimes, sources close to the investigation have revealed to the Mainichi Shimbun.

A joint investigative headquarters set up by police forces in Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures on Oct. 18 suspects that Shu Fujii, 26, of unknown address and occupation, was involved in the three cases -- a murder robbery in Yokohama, a robbery causing injury in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, and a robbery in Ichikawa, also in Chiba. Fujii was arrested on suspicion of confinement in the Ichikawa case, in which a resident was abducted.

According to the investigation headquarters, a 72-year-old resident noticed that her home in Ichikawa had been ransacked upon returning home at around 7 a.m. on Oct. 17, and that her 50-year-old daughter was missing. At least one hammer and adhesive tape were found left inside the home.

That evening, Chiba Prefectural Police arrested Fujii on the spot after he was found to be staying in an accommodation facility in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, with the missing woman, and took the woman into protective custody. She was severely injured, with bruises all over her body. Police believe she was taken away from her Ichikawa residence.

The following day, the joint investigative team also arrested Kengo Takanashi, 21, a self-proclaimed interior worker from Yokohama, on suspicion of robbery resulting in injury and other charges, after he turned himself in at Kanagawa Prefectural Police's Tsuzuki Police Station earlier that day.

Takanashi stands accused of teaming up with others to break into the Ichikawa home sometime around 1:15 a.m. to 2:45 a.m. on Oct. 17, threatening the 50-year-old woman by saying, "Where's the money? I'll kill you." He then allegedly assaulted and injured her, including by punching her in the face, and fled after stealing a light car and a mobile phone. He has apparently admitted to the allegations against him.

Police are analyzing Takanashi's cell phone they have seized, and are investigating Fujii's involvement in the Ichikawa case.

In the Yokohama case, Hiroharu Goto, a 75-year-old resident of a home in the city's Aoba Ward, was found dead with his hands and legs tied up with adhesive tape on Oct. 16. An autopsy suggested that he had died around Oct. 15 from loss of blood due to blunt force trauma to the entire body. Kanagawa Prefectural Police determined the case as a murder robbery on Oct. 17 as the home had been ransacked and about 200,000 yen (approx. $1,340) in cash had been stolen, and set up an investigation headquarters.

According to investigative sources, fingerprints detected in the Yokohama home matched Fujii's. Goto's mouth was covered with adhesive tape, and he had bone fractures in several parts of his body, leading police to suspect that he had been severely battered with a blunt object.

In the Funabashi case, a woman called police at around 8:55 a.m. on Oct. 9, saying, "My father bumped into robbers." It was reported that two men broke into the home at night on or after Oct. 7. The couple living in the house was injured, with the wife in her 70s left with broken ribs and her husband in his 80s sustaining minor wounds. They apparently told investigators that about 9 million yen ($60,200) in cash was stolen.

Fujii's fingerprints were also detected in the Funabashi home. The joint investigative team is probing the connections between the three cases, all of which targeted residences of elderly people.

(Japanese original by Mayu Miyamoto and Chika Yokomi, Yokohama Bureau, and Honami Hayashi, Chiba Bureau)