Mother dumped babies in buckets of concrete and kept them in apartment for 2 decades

In a shocking incident, a 53-year-old Japanese mother was arrested on Tuesday (21 November) after she confessed to dumping four of her babies in buckets filled with concrete and keeping them in her apartment for two decades.

Mayumi Saito told investigators that she gave birth to the babies between 1992 and 1997, a police spokesman told AFP.

Saito, who lives with her son, turned herself in to the police on Monday and confessed, saying that she did not have money to raise the children, local media reported.

"I did not think I could afford to raise them. I had no one to talk to," Saito told the police, according to national broadcaster NHK.

"I encased multiple newborns after giving birth inside buckets of concrete before burying them," Saito was quoted as saying by Nippon News Network.

The police who searched her flat which is in the city of Neyagawa, Japan, said they found four concrete-filled buckets in a wardrobe

Each of the buckets were found to contain what appeared to be the remains of an infant, the Asahi Shimbun reported.

Police are questioning Saito and are trying to determine whether she killed the babies or if they were stillborn.

Police also said it was unclear as to why the woman has turned herself in now, Channel News Asia reported.

This case came on the heels of another bizarre killing which took place three weeks ago. Takahiro Shiraishi, 27, who is dubbed as the "Twitter killer", had confessed to killing and dismembering nine people he met via social media.

Investigators said they found him in his apartment just outside Tokyo. In all, 240 pieces of bones, heads and limbs belonging to eight women and a man were recovered from his apartment. Some of the body parts were covered with cat litter in a bid to conceal the evidence.

Shiraishi told police that his motives were financial and sexual, local media reported.