00:00:00
on the evening of july 11 1990 twenty-three-year-old sarah mcdermott stepped off the train at kannan railway
00:00:08
station and headed towards her car in the dimly lit adjoining car park she was never seen again
00:00:17
searching for sarah mcdermott is a case file presents podcast available for free
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slash case file to claim your case today [Music] the following episode was originally
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our website this episode involves a crime against children it may not be suitable for all
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listeners on may 5 each year japan celebrates a national holiday called children's day
00:03:56
it's a day for families to gather to honour the children in their lives and to wish them a lifetime of health and
00:04:03
happiness in 1997 in the city of kobe located on the southern side of japan's main island
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honshu children's day had added significance two years prior kobe experienced a devastating earthquake that killed 4
00:04:23
600 of its people as the city rebuilt that's residents looked towards the children as a symbol
00:04:30
of hope for their future dating back thousands of years children's day is buried deep in ancient
00:04:38
tradition large colorful carp streamers are hung outside houses of those with children to
00:04:45
symbolize strength and success while stalls of famous samurai warriors are proudly displayed indoors
00:04:53
families treat themselves with cashawamachi rice cakes filled with sweet bean paste
00:05:01
some families on children's day bathe in a tub sprinkled with iris leaves and roots
00:05:07
it is believed that the iris promotes good health not only that bathing in iris leaves is said to ward
00:05:16
off evil spirits [Music] [Music] [Applause] approximately 540 kilometers south west
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of tokyo on osaka bay the city of kobe is divided into nine different areas called wards
00:05:57
the sumer ward situated along the coastline of kobe is an idyllic spot with a white sandy beach boardwalks
00:06:05
cafes and cherry blossom trees visible on the surrounding hillsides however even the beautiful scenery could
00:06:14
not conceal the awful sight that was presenting itself on residential streets of the area in march 1997
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dead cats some strangled and others mutilated were found on the sidewalks the horrified and distressed locals were
00:06:32
at a loss to explain the attacks on sunday march 16 1997 10 year old hayaka yamashita left her
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home in sumer ward although she was by herself the side of the little girl walking amongst the
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crowd raised no concerns from passers-by known worldwide for being a safe country
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it is common for young people to run errands in japan without parental supervision
00:07:04
kobe the seventh largest city in japan is regarded as one of the safest unbeknownst to ayaka she was being
00:07:13
watched by someone as she emerged from the crowd and walked down a deserted street
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the perpetrator saw his chance [Applause] upon returning home afterwards the perpetrator wrote the following entry in
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his diary i carried out sacred experiments today to confirm how fragile human beings are
00:07:38
i brought the hammer down when the girl turned to face me i think i hit her a few times but i was
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too excited to remember ayaka yamashita was found unconscious and taken to hospital
00:07:55
she succumbed to her injuries seven days later [Music] an investigation into ayaka's death
00:08:03
failed to unearth any suspects authorities suspected her killer was also responsible for stabbing a
00:08:10
nine-year-old girl that day as well seriously wounded but not fatally the girl could not describe her attacker
00:08:19
only her immense surprise as an unknown male approached and drove a knife into her stomach
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the community were appalled as homicide in kobe was nearly unheard of let alone the murder of a child
00:08:36
children's day passed without celebration for a yaka yamashita's parents investigators were still no closer to
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catching her killer they theorised that the murder may be related to a similar attack where a
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group of girls had been set upon by a male yielding a hammer earlier that month although with nowhere near the severity
00:08:59
encountered by ayaka the group of girls did not recognize their attacker and could do little to
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shed blood on who he might be meanwhile dead cats stopped appearing on the sidewalks
00:09:20
on saturday may 24 1997 just over two months after the attack on ayaka yamashita eleven-year-old jun jose
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left his home in corbeir just before 6pm although intellectually impaired and only able to say his name the
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exceedingly friendly and happy jun was more than capable of making the 500 metre journey from his parents house to
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his grandfather's house that night some of his friends were waiting at a nearby train station and called out to
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the popular dune as he walked by the perpetrator watched on he approached jun because of june's trusting nature he was
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easily led into the hilly and deserted woodlands when jun failed to appear at his
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grandfather's house his anxious family phoned the local police after conducting a search of the local
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area they failed to find any sign of the young boy suddenly dead cats began appearing on the streets
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of sumo ward once more three days later a janitor at the kobe municipal tomiga orca junior high school
00:10:42
where jun haase attended as a student arrived for a day's work at 6 40 a.m he approached the large iron
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front gate to the school and recoiled at the side in front of him the decapitated head of jun hase was
00:11:00
affixed to the gate jun's eyes had been gouged out and his mouth had been cut open from ear to ear
00:11:09
[Music] a piece of paper was wedged between june haase's teeth retrieving the 10 centimeter piece of
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paper police discovered a note written in red ink excerpts of the note taunted police
00:11:25
reading this is the beginning of the game try to stop me if you can you stupid police
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and i desperately want to see people die it is a thrill for me to commit murder nothing makes me more excited than
00:11:43
killing a bloody judgment is needed for my years of great bitterness i have gone through with my long held
00:11:51
revenge catch me if you can also written on the note were two english words school misspelled as s h double o double
00:12:05
l and killer the note was signed with the alias sayito sakakibara a combination of six
00:12:14
kanji symbols for the words sake devil rose sacred and fight at the very bottom written in black ink
00:12:24
was a symbol not used in the japanese language it consisted of a shape similar to a
00:12:30
teardrop above which was drawn a circle divided into four quarters the act of sending the police a
00:12:39
taunting message via a handwritten letter bore a striking resemblance to another infamous crime spree the zodiac
00:12:47
killer having been active decades earlier near 9000 kilometers away in california
00:12:55
japanese authorities knew they weren't dealing with the zodiac but a copycat schools in kobe were closed while police
00:13:08
scoured the area the six kanji letters signed at the bottom of the note were found graffitied
00:13:14
on outer walls of the school grounds and two dead cats were found nearby when searching a secluded woodland area
00:13:24
approximately five hundred meters from the school the body of june hase was found
00:13:32
an autopsy revealed that he had been strangled to death before being decapitated and that the strangling took
00:13:39
place soon after he had gone missing three days prior over 400 local police questioned nearly
00:13:48
everyone in the middle class neighborhood they learned that in the week prior to
00:13:53
jun haase's murder a man aged in his 30s had been seen by a number of witnesses staring at the school from a parked car
00:14:03
the hunt began for the man who could only be described as wearing a navy jacket and glasses
00:14:11
authorities believed that the killer of jun hasse might have been a former pupil
00:14:16
at the school they theorised that he may have been inclined to carry out such an attack as
00:14:23
retaliation for being mistreated or bullied during his school years detectives fervently checked school
00:14:31
records of past pupils in the hope of identifying a person of interest nobody stood out
00:14:40
meanwhile anxiety swept the streets of kobe a city completely unaccustomed to such a
00:14:47
brutal murder parents accompanied their children to and from school and forbade them from
00:14:54
going outdoors unsupervised two hundred and fifty extra police officers were dispatched to patrol the
00:15:01
neighborhood japanese prime minister ryutero hashimoto called for the killer to be
00:15:08
found as soon as possible yet he eluded police housewife takako miyoshi told the
00:15:18
washington post i feel resentment toward the police who have not been able to do
00:15:24
anything two months have passed since one girl was stabbed and one killed and as time passes it becomes more difficult
00:15:33
to solve the case although detectives were struggling to come up with the suspect they did have
00:15:41
some clues behind the method of his killing linguists and psychologists suggested
00:15:48
that the killer may have been influenced by a television series that aired in japan the year prior
00:15:55
in the popular thriller the perpetrator stuffed a rose into the mouth of each of
00:16:00
his victims as a calling card once again the killing of cats in the neighborhood
00:16:07
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system on the evening of july 11 1990 twenty-three-year-old sarah mcdermott stepped off the train at kannan railway
00:19:27
station and headed towards her car in the dimly lit adjoining car park she was never seen again
00:19:36
true crime author vicki petraetis known for her case file presents series the vanishing of vivian cameron became
00:19:43
fascinated by sarah mcdermott's case while researching and writing a book on the frankston serial killings
00:19:50
a spade of brutal murders that some believe may be connected to sarah's disappearance
00:19:57
join vicki for her second case file presents podcast as she tries to solve the mystery of what happened when sarah
00:20:04
took those final steps towards her car more than 30 years ago searching for sarah mcdermott is a case
00:20:12
file presents podcast available for free only on spotify from november 15. stay tuned until the end of today's
00:20:21
episode to hear the official trailer and follow searching for sarah mcdermott on
00:20:27
spotify thank you for listening to this episode's ads by supporting our sponsors
00:20:34
you support case file on june 6 1997 two weeks after the murder of jun haase a brown envelope
00:20:53
arrived at the offices of newspaper kobe shinbun it was postmarked to june 3 and had no
00:21:01
name or return address the rambling 1400 word letter inside was signed by sayito sakakibara
00:21:12
the murder of jun haase had dominated a news headlines since the young boy's death
00:21:18
in their haste to publish new details on the crime including the note that had been shoved in june's mouth the media
00:21:26
had erroneously mentioned that the note had been signed onibara or devil's rose in english
00:21:33
[Music] this letter sought to clarify this mistake with sayito sakakibara writing
00:21:42
from now on if you misread my name or spoil my mood i will kill three vegetables a week
00:21:50
if you think i can kill only children you are greatly mistaken detectives understood his use of the
00:22:00
word vegetables as a disparaging term for people or for those with an intellectual or physical disability
00:22:08
the letter went on if i was the same as i was when i was born i probably would not have taken the
00:22:16
trouble to place a severed head at the front gate of a junior high school anyone who tries can enjoy killing
00:22:24
people furtively as one who has led and continues to lead an invisible existence i have gone out
00:22:32
of my way to attract public attention because i want to be recognised as a real person
00:22:39
at the very least in your fantasies at the same time i have not forgotten to take revenge on the compulsory education
00:22:49
system which has created me as an invisible existence and the society which gave birth to this education
00:22:56
system however i would gain nothing from me revenge save i'm burdening myself of the
00:23:04
load i've carried until now so i discussed this with a friend who alone in the world is invisible like
00:23:13
myself he said for revenge that is worthy rather than miserable mix your revenge with murder
00:23:23
change your hobby from murder to revenge and you will create a new world which is
00:23:29
yours alone moved by those words i have started this killing game but even now i don't know why i enjoy
00:23:40
killing i can only say that it is in my nature it is only when i kill that i can be
00:23:47
freed from daily hatreds and feel a sense of relief it is only other people's pain
00:23:54
that can ease my pain the arrival of this ladder furthered the detective's belief that sayito
00:24:03
sakakibara was influenced by the zodiac killer as he was well known for sending messages to authorities through
00:24:11
newspapers they speculated that the killing and mutilation of cats pre-empted each
00:24:18
murder other than that they had a few leads to go on the man in his 30s that they were
00:24:26
chasing was not identified on june 27 three weeks after the letter arrived at the newspaper kobe shinbun
00:24:38
someone came forward with information to the police they knew of a person who was
00:24:45
particularly cruel to animals and who had confided that he had killed a cat for fun and buried it
00:24:53
detectives went to investigate the next day the lead detective on the jun hasse murder case held a televised
00:25:03
press conference after apprehending the male person for torturing cats he confessed to the
00:25:10
murder of jun haase the bludgeoning murder of a yaka yamashita the hammer attack on the group of girls
00:25:18
and the stabbing of the nine-year-old girl who survived the ordeal he gave no motive to detectives other
00:25:26
than saying i simply wanted to try out various methods of killing he also admitted to being inspired to
00:25:36
kill by comic book hero baramon who used beheading as one form of killing his enemies
00:25:45
the public were stunned as the detective announced they would not be releasing the name of the killer
00:25:53
this was because the perpetrator who had the entire city of kobe living in fear for over three months
00:26:00
was not an adult he was a 14 year old school student to protect the killer's identity he was
00:26:10
given the name boy a searching boyier's bedroom detectives found a book about the 1990s new york
00:26:24
zodiac killer copycat violent comics and horror movies as well as his diary in which he documented his killings
00:26:35
one week after the death of a yaka yamashita he wrote this morning my mum told me
00:26:42
poor girl the girl that was attacked seems to have died there is no sign of me being caught
00:26:52
he then went on to thank an imaginary god he named barmoir dokkeesian for keeping him safe
00:27:01
also taken into evidence was red tape identical to the tape used to seal the envelope sent to the newspaper and a
00:27:09
knife which boye admitted to using to behead jun haase along with a hacksaw neighbors were stunned by the arrest
00:27:20
telling the media that boye came from a regular middle class working family he could often be seen playing table
00:27:28
tennis with his two younger brothers or gardening with his family in their backyard
00:27:34
boyier's father worked for an established company and his mother did community work
00:27:41
he seemed to them like a normal and polite teenager classmates of boye told a different
00:27:50
story at the tomiga orca junior high school where boy a was in the third grade his
00:27:58
classmates told of his love of cutting up frogs and torturing cats shortly before his attack on jun haase
00:28:08
he was expelled from school after bludgeoning a fellow student who bullied him with an iron pipe
00:28:15
according to his classmates boyier would talk to jun jose in the playground the discovery that these horrendous
00:28:25
murders had been carried out by a 14 year old with a hatred towards the education system caused despair amongst
00:28:32
the japanese population prime minister ryutarou hashimoto asked on television where did we go wrong
00:28:44
government officials and members of the public alike were quick to blame violence depicted in manga comics video
00:28:51
games and on film the nation's construction minister said movies lacking any literary or
00:29:00
educational merit made for just showing cruel scenes can easily be watched by adolescent children
00:29:08
adults should be blamed for this in response the education ministry announced a study into the relationship
00:29:18
between violence in the media and its effect on young people they also vowed to create a new
00:29:24
curriculum in schools to focus on spiritual education and teaching the preciousness of life
00:29:33
japan's education system also came under scrutiny for the pressure forced upon students without care given to their
00:29:41
emotional well-being some speculated that the stress of intensive examinations became too much
00:29:48
for the boy and he lashed out in violence a mental health counsellor in corvair was reported in the guardian as being
00:29:57
particularly struck by boy a's claim that he felt invisible in his letter to the newspaper
00:30:04
he said his letter pinpoints a basic social problem the japanese are not good at
00:30:11
communicating on an individual basis the boy wanted to communicate he wanted to connect
00:30:19
but unfortunately he couldn't and his anger and feelings accumulated [Music] because of his age boye served time in a
00:30:31
medical reformatory for juveniles in western tokyo to receive psychiatric treatment and counselling
00:30:39
due to the seriousness of his crimes in the year 2000 japanese legislature was amended to lower the age of criminal
00:30:47
responsibility from 16 to 14. on march 11 2004 the japanese ministry of justice announced that 21 year old
00:30:59
boy a was being released on a provisional basis with full release to follow in january 2005.
00:31:08
as reported in the japan times the head of the parole board who decided on his release said
00:31:16
the board has interviewed the man on various occasions and closely examined his correctional state
00:31:24
we came to conclude that psychiatric care and correctional education at reformatories have obtained good results
00:31:33
boyier's lawyer asked that his identity and whereabouts be protected telling the
00:31:39
japan times if people around him make a big fuss and put him on the spot that would make it
00:31:46
difficult for him to reintegrate into society by realizing the value of his own life
00:31:53
he now feels he wants to make up for having taken people's lives he has grown up a lot in a short period
00:32:01
of time i am not worried about the possibility of repeat offences boyier was released without incident and
00:32:13
found work as a day labourer his identity and whereabouts were protected through her lawyer boya's mother
00:32:22
released the statement to the japan times saying our son is now doing his best to have
00:32:30
courage to plunge into the world of anxieties and uncertainties i believe there will be a long and tough
00:32:38
road ahead for us and our son but if possible i hope the public will watch over us
00:32:46
quietly [Music] in june 2005 five months after his full release boyier published his memoir titled zakka
00:33:02
under his pseudonym sayito sakakibara some bookstores refused to stock the memoir but it quickly became a japanese
00:33:12
bestseller the book's publisher defended its release claiming that it gave an important insight into the mind of a
00:33:20
killer in the epilogue boye writes i couldn't keep quiet about my past anymore i had to write
00:33:32
otherwise i thought i would go insane father vehemently opposed the release of the book
00:33:42
according to the japan times boye sent him a copy with a handwritten letter of apology inside
00:33:51
zekker detailed what had happened to june including how boyet had lured him into the woodlands to play before
00:33:59
strangling and decapitating him and taking his head home in a plastic bag according to his memoir boyet who
00:34:09
called himself an incorrigible sexual deviant then took the head into the bathroom
00:34:15
locked the door and committed an act far more heinous than murder as printed in the japan times another
00:34:26
excerpt of zekka reads when i advanced to junior high school i had already become bored of killing cats
00:34:35
and gradually found myself fantasizing about how it would feel to murder human beings like me
00:34:44
although boyer apologized to the families of his victims in the book jun father thought the apology shallow and
00:34:52
false saying the book completely trampled on our feelings it is clear that he is not sorry for
00:35:01
what he did according to the star the memoir also published the letters of apology that
00:35:08
boye had sent her ayaka yamashita's mother every year since her death originally thinking that the letters
00:35:17
were sincere the printing of these in his memoir angered ayaka's mother who realized they were only written to be
00:35:25
shared in his book after the release of zucker some members of the public questioned whether boyer
00:35:34
was rehabilitated at all passages of text showed a man unrepentant for his actions
00:35:43
in one excerpt he described his feelings after placing jun haase's head on the gate to the school
00:35:50
saying let me confess something i thought the sight was a beauty i felt like i was born just to see the
00:36:00
ethereal beauty of what was in front of my eyes i thought i could die in 2015 boyer launched a website about
00:36:14
himself titled the unbearable transparency of being in which she posted strange images of an unclothed
00:36:22
man with black fabric covering his face the man whom boye claimed to be himself was then photoshopped onto a variety of
00:36:33
images one was the torso of the naked man photoshopped onto the body of a scorpion
00:36:41
another was of a naked man lying on his back holding an alien slug-like creature
00:36:47
with teeth between his legs in retaliation for the launch of the website which seemed only to serve
00:36:56
boyier's own vanity tabloid magazine the shukan post exposed the boya's real identity
00:37:06
according to the shukan post boyer's real name is shinichiro azuma in 2015 he lived in the saeetama
00:37:17
prefecture north of tokyo in 2021 it is unknown if he still lives there or if he has changed location
00:37:29
he is not required to report his whereabouts to any parole boards and is free to live his life with no
00:37:36
restrictions boye could be anywhere [Music] [Music] i've been writing about real police
00:38:11
cases for nearly three decades now and there are few more tragic than the case of sarah mcdermott with sarah's
00:38:19
disappearance there's an element of patience of being collected she was always a very good
00:38:27
daughter if she was out someone going to be late she would ring and let us know she was
00:38:32
seen by several witnesses walking toward the car park and then sarah mcdermott was gone when she's come down the bottom
00:38:40
of the stairs and walked towards the car park she's virtually walked into the darkness when sarah's family reported
00:38:46
her missing police mounted an extensive search i could see blood on the bitumen underneath the car that
00:38:53
was parked at the driver's side of her car the the blood on the ground it sort of indicated to everybody that they'd
00:38:59
been foul play a couple of suspects emerged ahead of the rest and he said well when i do get out you'll be one of
00:39:07
the first people i look for and i said why is that and he said because i just like to kill you she said you know that
00:39:15
murder that was up at the cannon nook station i was there with two other blokes and i'm worried because i don't
00:39:20
know how staunch they are who knows what he did if he killed sarah and disposed of her body maybe he thinks i can get
00:39:26
away with this they don't know where she is they don't know who did it just how many other women were followed from the
00:39:31
canonical railway station will never know so i was walking along there and i could
00:39:37
hear footsteps behind me and they were getting closer and they yelled out to me don't take the shortcut take the bridge
00:39:46
i just think those men at the dotto saved my life the evidence is out there so pulled out a couple of the cards and
00:39:54
looked at the name and it said sarah mcdermott searching for sarah mcdermott out now for free only on spotify