Locked Away for 15 Years, 42-Pound Woman Found Dead

For at least 15 years, Airi Kakimoto was confined to a 32-square-foot room without windows or heat, according to police. Her suffering would only be exposed with her death. Authorities in Japan say the 33-year-old was found dead in her parents' Neyagawa home on Saturday. She died days earlier around Dec. 18 from exposure to cold in an unheated structure her parents had built separate from the main home, report CNN and the Japan Times. 

Authorities say Yasutaka Kakimoto, 55, and Yukari Kakimoto, 53, admitted to locking their daughter in the room from the age of 16 or 17 because of a mental illness that made her violent, per Reuters. Extremely malnourished and weighing just 42 pounds at her death, Airi was fed once a day and drank from a tube connected to an outdoor water tank, according to police.

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