YOKOHAMA -- The owner of an apartment complex that was gutted by a fire that killed three of its disabled inhabitants has told police she set fire to the structure after being harassed by its residents and administrator, investigators said.

Keiko Shimura, 64, owner of the Haimu Himawari apartment complex in Ayase, Kanagawa Prefecture, stands accused of murder and arson of an inhabited structure.

"I was bullied by the administrator and residents of the facility and was on bad terms with them. So, I wanted to destroy the facility by setting it alight," Shimura was quoted as telling police. There was apparently trouble over the lease contract at the facility.

Kanagawa Prefectural Police accuse Shimura of murder because she set fire to storage under the staircase of the facility, apparently knowing that it would make it impossible for residents on the second floor to escape. However, Shimura has denied that she had murderous intent. Investigators are further set to question Shimura over her motives behind the case.

Shimura set fire to storage on the first floor of the facility at around 2:20 a.m. on June 2, according to local police. The fire consumed the entire wooden, two-story facility. Three bodies believed to be those of residents were found in the charred remains of the apartment. Another man was seriously injured in the fire.

Despite being the owner, Shimura told police that she was not allowed to use a washing machine inside the facility and that residents had complained behind her back that she was using the bath in the facility for free.

Haimu Himawari was used to communally house intellectually disabled patients trying to lead independent lives. Shimura owned the structure, which she rented out to a welfare organization, and served as the caretaker at the apartment until about 2004. Shimura, however, was reportedly complaining about a cut in her wages as the caretaker of the facility.

Since around 1990, Shimura had been suffering from depression and regularly visited hospital. In December last year, she was seeing a doctor because of insomnia.

Other sources close to the suspect said she had a reputation as a "service-minded person." Shimura had been helping out a nongovernmental organization supporting education in Cambodia from seven or eight years ago and sometimes visited the country. She would also give vegetables grown in her home garden to neighbors, the sources said.

"There might have been a gap between her dream of contributing to society and reality," said Tsutomu Ohara, 74, president of a social welfare corporation that operates the facility, during a press conference on Monday.

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