[1] These murders prompted a manhunt for a 63-year-old man who had disappeared from the town after the killings, leaving two cars and his dog behind.
The suspect's house had a haiku poem posted in the window reading "Setting a fire—smoke gives delight—to a country fellow".
On the morning of July 22, police found two additional bodies in the same area, several hundred meters away from the destroyed houses.
[5] The suspect, a neighbour of the victims, was arrested in a wooded area on July 26, 2013, and taken to a nearby police station for interrogation.
[2] On December 27, 2013, the Yamaguchi District Public Prosecutors Office officially charged Kosei Homi with five counts of murder and arson.