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A Mother who Abandoned Her Children to Starve to Death

A sex worker who fought for custody of her two children during her divorce only to become tired of caring for them

Behind the Crime Scene
5 min readJul 5, 2021
Sanae Shimomura. Photo credits: blog.goo.ne.jp

The Osaka child abandonment case involved two abandoned children in Osaka, Japan. It happened in late June 2010 when Sanae Shimomura, a 23-year-old Japanese single mother living in Osaka, closed the door to her apartment shut, leaving her 3-year-old daughter Sakurako Hagi and 1-year-old son Kaede Hagi alone inside with no way out.

Sanae Shimomura was the mother of two adorable children: Sakurako Hagi, a sweet girl, and Kaede Hagi, a charming little boy. Since her divorce in May 2009, she has been responsible for raising her children alone, a position she clearly can’t bear. She didn’t have the time or energy to do the cleaning, as evidenced by the mountain of garbage piled up in the apartment.

Sanae Shimomura, who was 23, began working in a sex parlor in January 2010. She was a beautiful young woman, and the job provided a nice break from her daily responsibilities as a wife and a mother. Her…

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Behind the Crime Scene
Behind the Crime Scene

Written by Behind the Crime Scene

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