Official Takes Life Over E. Coli Epidemic

The official in charge of school lunches blamed for a deadly string of food poisonings in western Japan committed suicide, police said Saturday.

Shigeki Morimoto, 61, who headed the school lunch program for Sakai city, had been troubled for months by the epidemic, which killed two schoolchildren in the city and sickened thousands.

Morimoto was last seen leaving for work Thursday. His family reported him missing the next day, worried that he would kill himself.

Morimoto’s body was found Saturday afternoon in a 13-foot pond several miles away from his home, officer Satoru Ono said.

Sakai, 300 miles west of Tokyo, was the worst hit city in a massive outbreak of the O157 strain of the E. coli bacteria this summer. The disease killed 11 people across Japan.