FUKUOKA, JAPAN--A woman arrested Monday on suspicion of murdering her 6-year-old son and abandoning his body in a Fukuoka park has reportedly told police she strangled him with a piece of plastic hose, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The police said Tuesday that Kaoru Tomiishi, 35, said she had felt despair when her son said he did not need her. She is being held on suspicion of strangling her son, Koki, with a cordlike object in the disabled stall of a public toilet in Odo Park in Nishi Ward, Fukuoka, at about 3:20 p.m. Thursday and dumping his body in a space behind the toilet, according to the Fukuoka prefectural police.

"When I asked [Koki] for assistance in the park's toilet, he said 'I can do without a sick mother,'" company employee Tomiishi reportedly told police. "I despaired and strangled my son from behind with a plastic hose."

According to investigation sources, Koki had been helping his mother out when she used the toilet because of her chronic illness. Koki was in a bad mood when she asked him for help on the day of the murder and snapped at her, criticizing her and complaining she did not visit his classes on an observation day at school.

The police initially thought Tomiishi strangled Koki with the mobile phone strap that he wore round his neck when he went out, but, in line with her confession, they found and seized a length of hose from a trash can at the Tomiishi family home.

The hose is about 50 centimeters long and was used for blowing air into a fish tank. It was wrapped in a towellike piece of cloth and Tomiishi reportedly had put it in her bag with the intention of using it to commit suicide.