TOKYO – Held captive for two years inside a Tokyo apartment, a teenage girl made a daring escape over the weekend and the suspect is now in police custody, according to authorities.
The girl, from Saitama, Japan, was just 13 when Kabu Terauchi allegedly forced her into his car and drove her to his downtown Tokyo apartment, according to the Japan Times.
On Sunday, Terauchi went shopping and forgot to lock the door. The girl, now 15, slipped out of the apartment that had served as her prison, and ran to a payphone to call her family. Police rushed to the apartment to look for Terauchi but couldn’t find him there.
Working on a tip from a witness, detectives found the 23-year-old suspect in a wooded area near a train station west of Tokyo. Terauchi was bleeding from what appeared to be a self-inflicted slash wound to the neck, and was holding a box cutter, sources told the paper.
Terauchi had just graduated with a university degree and even had a job offer lined up – all while allegedly holding the teen captive, according to officials.
Police are waiting for him to recover from his wounds before charging him in the alleged kidnapping.
