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file [Music] our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents if you feel at
00:01:39
anytime you need support please contact your local crisis center for suggested phone numbers for confidential support
00:01:45
please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website this episode contains descriptions of
00:01:53
violence against the family including children it won't be suitable for all listeners Japan's capital city of Tokyo
00:02:09
is made up of 23 special wards each of which is a self-governing municipality with several districts located on the
00:02:18
western side of Tokyo the set agai award is the second largest and the most densely populated it is a residential
00:02:27
leafy area with a reputation for being family-friendly while offering easy access to the city the four member
00:02:36
Miyazawa family lived in a semi-detached three-story house in Seto Gaia's [ __ ]
00:02:42
social gaya district 200 similar homes were originally built in the area but when the Mia's R was moved in in 1990
00:02:51
most of these had been demolished to make way for Sachi gaya Park a public recreational space consisting of play
00:02:59
areas tennis courts and grassy lawns by the year 2000 the Miyazawa z' property was one of only four remaining houses
00:03:09
that were essentially located inside the park lands so she gaia park was situated along the
00:03:17
east and south side of the house with the Sankara river to the west directly behind and separated only by a fence was
00:03:26
a skatepark and playground the area was typically quiet and safe but the addition of the skatepark had introduced
00:03:35
a hive of activity and to lots of noise there were also sightings of suspicious individuals in the area which led to
00:03:43
some safety concerns for the Miyazawa family the coming Sochi Gaia district had once been overseen by a neighborhood
00:03:51
watch program but with so few houses remaining security had become an issue as the government was offering a buyback
00:04:01
scheme to allow the further expansion of the park lands the Miyazawa had decided
00:04:07
to take advantage of the offer and applied to be relocated the family was made up of parents Mikio
00:04:15
and Yasuko and their two young children daughter Nina and son ray Mikio and Yasuko had met at a self
00:04:25
development seminar during the 1980s eventually going on to marry in December of 1986 44 year-old
00:04:34
Michio was a creative man with a love for animation his childhood was spent participating in puppetry and other
00:04:42
theatrical productions at school after graduating from University he worked as an animator and question developer for
00:04:50
quiz programs he eventually secured a position at Interbrand a london-based marketing company with over 20 offices
00:05:00
worldwide past clients included high-profile brands such as neason Microsoft and Xerox Michio worked in
00:05:10
their Tokyo branch developing corporate identity for major corporations his colleagues described him as a congenial
00:05:18
man who got on well with everyone 41 year old Yasuko was a kind patient and intelligent woman who ran what was
00:05:28
known as a cram school from the family's home called a Dooku in Japanese a cram school is a private school that offers
00:05:38
supplementary classes for students wanting extra help preparing for key academic admission exams
00:05:45
the Miyazawa plans to move were complicated by the fact that their six-year-old son Hawaii had learning
00:05:52
disabilities and a speech impediment that required special attention raiiy attended a public kindergarten in seta
00:06:00
gaya but his parents were seeking professional help before enrolling him in primary school as they wanted to give
00:06:07
him the best possible start in life his sister 8 year older Nina was a bright intelligent girl who would skip
00:06:15
the grade at school she was very active with a passion for soccer piano and ballet and would show off her dance
00:06:23
moves to her extended family both Mikio and Yasuko adored their children and kept a record of their
00:06:32
physical growth by periodically marking their hearts on their living room wall given the unique situation that the
00:06:42
mirrors our family faced the government gave them permission to remain in their commie Sochi guy a property until they
00:06:49
found a location suited to raiis needs in late 2000 the Miyazawa sound the suitable plot of land to build their new
00:06:59
home on with the intention that yasuko's mother Haruko sister Ann and Ann's husband
00:07:06
Hiroyuki would join them as neighbors the three currently lived next door to the mayor's hours on the other side of
00:07:15
their semi-detached home in came-- Sochi gaya and they were eager to stay together they were all due to move out
00:07:23
in March of 2001 meaning they only had to put up with the rowdy crowds at the skate park for a few more months
00:07:41
[Music] [Music] on the morning of Sunday December 31 Haruko tried to phone her daughter as
00:08:06
she did most mornings but the call wouldn't go through by 10 a.m. Haruko still hadn't seen or heard from
00:08:14
Yasuko or the rest of the family and she began to worry there was no internal connection between
00:08:22
the two homes so she went outside and knocked on the mayor's ours front door when there was no response she let
00:08:31
herself inside Damir zoa's house was split across three storeys the entrance opened to a reception room which Mikio
00:08:41
me as our life used as a study towards the rear of the room was a short flight of stairs that led to the mezzanine
00:08:49
level which hosted our AE and de niñas shared bedroom a small bathroom and a separate toilet a further
00:08:58
flight of stairs led to the second floor where the kitchen living room and laundry were located on the mezzanine
00:09:07
level a pulldown ladder granted access to the third-floor attic which contained Michio and yasuko's bedroom
00:09:16
at the base of the ground-floor stairs Haruko discovered the blood-soaked body of her son-in-law
00:09:24
meteor she continued upstairs to the mezzanine level where on the landing she found the bodies of her daughter Yasuko
00:09:33
and the granddaughter Nina they too were lying in pools of blood Haruko touched them to check if they
00:09:43
were still alive but both were cold in a state of shock she rushed out of the house and called the police
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attending officers found the body of Rae Miyazawa in the bunk bed he shared with
00:10:00
his sister investigators pieced together a probable series of events based on the
00:10:09
presentation of the crime scene it appeared as though the killer had climbed the fence at the rear of the
00:10:15
property and scaled up to the mezzanine level a screen that covered the bathroom
00:10:21
window had been removed indicating the killer had done this to enter the house after strangling six-year-old Rae II in
00:10:30
his bedroom the killer then came across Nina and launched an attack as meteo was
00:10:37
the only member of the household not dressed for bed it was believed he was working in he study when he heard the
00:10:44
disturbance and went upstairs to investigate he then came face-to-face with the intruder who brandished a 34
00:10:54
centimeter long knife with a 21 centimeter blade that was typically used for preparing sashimi a Japanese
00:11:02
delicacy of raw fish and made me Kia was stabbed upwards of 10 times and day that
00:11:09
fell or was pushed down the stairs a piece of the killer's blade was lodged in one of mickey o's wounds having
00:11:18
broken off but during the frenzied attack meanwhile nina had climbed the ladder to her parents bedroom to alert
00:11:28
her mother an open first-aid kit was found in the bedroom along with blood-stained bandages on one
00:11:35
of the futon beds Nina's blood was found on some of the items it was believed the eight-year-old
00:11:44
had sustained injuries in her initial confrontation with the armed intruder which Yasuko had tended to the pair then
00:11:53
ventured down to the mezzanine level perhaps anticipating that the perpetrator had left
00:12:00
however the killer was still inside the house and had replaced his broken knife with a larger one from the kitchen the
00:12:11
violence inflicted on Yasuko and Amina was described by investigators as overkill news of the quadruple homicide
00:12:21
left the Miyazawa x' friends and relatives horrified with meteos mother passing out from shock when she was
00:12:29
informed police chief takeshi sue cheetah later said when I think about the brutality I just the wonder how
00:12:40
could a sane person carry out such an extreme crime he slashed them from above the chest to the face as if he tormented
00:12:49
them it was extremely brutal into the way he finished them off in the very end it was so horrific we couldn't show
00:12:59
those scars - the devastated victim's families there are no other cases in which the
00:13:06
victims have been cut up like this the Miyazawa x' phone line had been disconnected into their house had been
00:13:18
ransacked personal documents such as diaries identification cards utility bills receipts and bank statements were
00:13:28
spread across the dining room table and the sofa on the second floor in the bathtub police found some of Mickey O's
00:13:38
work documents receipts yasuko's cram school paperwork sanitary items tails ice cream wrappers and the random
00:13:47
contents of a drawer that had been emptied stolen from the home was a tuition fee paid by one of your Sukkos
00:13:56
students which amounted to approximately two hundred thousand yen the equivalent
00:14:01
of around three thousand Australian dollars at the time Mikio and yasuko's wallets were found empty and based on
00:14:11
the documents that had been spread out on the table it appeared as though the killer had been trying to figure out the
00:14:17
pin for meteos bank cards the theory then arose that the crime was motivated by robbery
00:14:25
however cash passbooks bank cards and jewelry had been left behind meteos documents featured kanji
00:14:36
one of three Japanese alphabets along with hiragana and katakana kanji is regarded as the most complex of the
00:14:46
three it is made up of more than 2,000 Chinese characters and is taught to students during the nine years of
00:14:54
compulsory childhood education as the killer had rifled and seemingly read through Mickey OHS paperwork police
00:15:03
believed he was able to read kanji and was likely raised in Japan a blood-stained Raglan style sweatshirt
00:15:13
was found on the second floor as it didn't contain any slash marks that was presumed to have belonged to the killer
00:15:23
other foreign clothing items and accessories were also found folded neatly at the scene presumably by the
00:15:31
killer these included a gray heart a black jacket a green checkered scarf a gray and black hip bag a pair of black
00:15:42
gloves and two black handkerchiefs multiple footprints were also found throughout the property including near
00:15:52
the bunk bed in the children's room on the stairs and outside the house underneath the bathroom window the
00:16:01
footprints on the stairs switched position halfway up from the wall side to the handrail side a unique stepping
00:16:09
pattern consistent with military training the footprints outside suggested that the killer used the
00:16:17
bathroom window to exit the house rather than enter it as was initially thought a
00:16:25
large amount of foreign blood was found in the attic bedroom and throughout the rest of the house including on discarded
00:16:33
bandages towels and sanitary pads testing confirmed it wasn't from any of the victims meaning it was the killer's
00:16:45
the killer was a male with a blood type a toxicology results showed there were no drugs in his system and he was a
00:16:55
nonsmoker a bandage covered in the killer's blood was found stuck to the back of a notebook in the living room
00:17:03
which led investigators to conclude that the killer must have injured his right hand during one of the attacks and
00:17:10
tended to his wounds with the family's first-aid kit as he then ransacked the house one of the bandages likely peeled
00:17:20
off and came to be stuck on the notebook due to the brutality of the crime the abundant forensic evidence and the level
00:17:32
of destruction within the house police initially suspected multiple perpetrators were involved
00:17:39
however the footprints and unidentified blood had come from one person there was
00:17:47
also evidence that the killer had remained in the house for some time after the murders it appeared he had
00:17:55
slept or rested on the living room sofa and also consumed food and drinks belonging to the Miyazawa family
00:18:02
including melon four bottles of barley tea and for ice creams one of the ice cream wrappers was found in the bathtub
00:18:13
another was in the living room and two too were beside the computer on the first floor furthermore unflushed feces
00:18:23
were found in one of the toilets the victims were estimated to have been murdered at approximately 11:30 p.m. on
00:18:33
Saturday December 30 according to Mickey O's computer records the killer had used the device to access
00:18:41
the Internet at 1:18 a.m. on Sunday December 31 he had visited the websites of Mikio and yasuko's employers and also
00:18:53
browsed the website of a theatrical group in Tokyo attempting to use mickey o's bank card to book tickets for an
00:19:02
upcoming show Mickey O's computer log also showed that it was used again at approximately 10:00 a.m. moments before
00:19:13
the bodies were discovered it appeared the killer had remained in the house until then need 10 hours after the
00:19:22
murders then fled when Haruko arrived on the scene Haruko and her daughter in eerie air who lived next door said the
00:19:34
walls between the two homes had been soundproofed to enable both families lived side by side in peace however they
00:19:42
did recall hearing a loud thud from the Meszaros house at approximately 11:30 the night of the murders to figure out
00:19:53
what the noise could have been police conducted a test where they pulled down the ladder that led to Mikio and
00:19:59
yasuko's attic bedroom Haruko and dan confirmed that this had been what they'd heard and said she went
00:20:10
to bed at around 1:00 a.m. but didn't hear any other notable sounds Japan was generally considered to be a safe
00:20:21
country but the burst of the real-estate bubble during the early 1990s had prompted a major recession this led to
00:20:30
high unemployment rates a decrease in asset value soaring debt large-scale illegal immigration and a shift in
00:20:39
traditional values recovery was slow and japan's once a low crime rate had steadily risen throughout the decade in
00:20:50
the year 2000 the crime rate increased by 12 and a half percent compared to the previous year
00:21:00
Japanese police had once had a globally revered reputation for their high morals
00:21:06
ethics and devotion to duty they were considered virtually incorruptible and highly efficient in solving crimes
00:21:16
however in 2000 there had been a series of police scandals across the country involving corruption negligence drug
00:21:25
abuse extortion bribery hazing of fellow officers cover-ups and sexual assault the Japanese police force faced heavy
00:21:37
criticism that they were losing the fight against crime as reported by the New York Times a public opinion poll
00:21:45
conducted in early 2000 revealed that 60% of Japanese citizens said their trust in police was declining while 45%
00:21:55
no longer trusted the police at all the Miyazawa family murders elevated the public's growing concerns and the
00:22:06
pressure was on the police to make a quick arrest in an unprecedented move that highlighted the shocking nature of
00:22:14
the crime Superintendent General of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Takeshi Noda attended the mayor's our
00:22:23
crime scene in person telling detectives this is an extremely brutal crime do whatever you can to arrest the culprit
00:22:40
investigators worked to piece together the family's last-known movements using witness statements and technological
00:22:47
data they determined that during the day of Saturday December 30 the Mia's hours
00:22:54
went shopping in an arcade near Chitose a kurosu ouma railway station approximately 1.6 kilometers north of
00:23:02
their home at around 6 p.m. they were seen at another shopping center nice a Joe gaku and my a railway station 1.8
00:23:13
kilometers south of their home the Mia's hours arrived home just before 7 p.m. Yasuko used the home telephone to call
00:23:26
her mother before the family ate dinner together at 9:38 p.m. Nina's computer was used to watch a television show
00:23:36
online and at 10:45 p.m. Michio logged on to his computer to read his work emails this was the last recorded action
00:23:48
of any family member with the murders occurring shortly after the families friends and relatives were questioned in
00:23:58
a bid to establish whether they had any known enemies or had reported anything suspicious in the lead-up to their
00:24:04
deaths Miki OHS colleagues told police that he hadn't been working on anything particularly sensitive or controversial
00:24:13
ruling out the possibility that the murders were connected to his work Mikio kept a detailed diary of his daily
00:24:22
activities and expenses and investigators found nothing within to suggest anything troubling was happening
00:24:29
in his life however in the week leading up to the murders Mikio had a demolished a group of
00:24:37
teenagers who were hanging out at the skate park behind at their house telling them off for being loud around the same
00:24:46
time he had also confronted a group of young members of the boss's oku motorcycle
00:24:52
gang who were causing nuisance in the area bosozoku members had a reputation for being violent and dangerous and were
00:25:02
known to carry weapons five days before the murders Yasuko had complained to her
00:25:10
father that someone had been repeatedly parking outside her home even though there were plenty of other parking
00:25:17
spaces available in the area two days later on December 27 a witness cited a middle-aged men walking around the
00:25:27
perimeter of the mayor's I was home as though he was studying it on December 29 a young man wearing clothes similar to
00:25:39
those left behind by the killer was seen it's a joke a COO and Maya railway station which was located next to one of
00:25:48
the shopping centers that the mayor's are was a visited the following day that same day a sashimi knife matching the
00:25:58
murder weapon was purchased at the shopping center this particular knife was one of 1500 manufactured in Japan's
00:26:08
Fukui Prefecture in the year 2000 the next day the day of the murders the same young male suspect was seen at sangalle
00:26:19
wa railway station just the 1.5 kilometers from the me Azores house locals reported that between June and
00:26:30
December of 2000 stray cats around sascha gaya Park had been found mutilated with their tails cut off or
00:26:38
their skin stripped this appeared to be a promising lead but the person responsible for the animal abuse was
00:26:47
later determined to be a bank clerk who was ruled out in connection with the mayor's our family murders
00:26:59
investigators soon learned of three suspicious incidents that had occurred in the early morning hours of Sunday
00:27:06
December 31 shortly after the murders just after midnight a taxi driver had picked up three men near Sochi gaya park
00:27:17
and drove them to a nearby railway station when the men left the cab the taxi driver noticed several bloodstains
00:27:26
on the backseat the biggest of which was approximately nineteen millimeters in diameter police tested the stains and
00:27:35
determined they were chocolate in a separate incident at dawn a woman had been driving past sasha gaia park when a
00:27:45
man jumped in front of her car lightly brushing it she stopped and got out to check on the man and to notice the blood
00:27:53
on the back of his left hand another suspicious incident had occurred at 5:25 a.m. on December 31 a man aged in his
00:28:06
30s walked into a medical office located at tobu Nikko railway station approximately 120 kilometers north of
00:28:15
the mayor's ours house seeking treatment for a knife wound on his hand that was so deep the bone was exposed medical
00:28:25
staff treated the injury but didn't ask how what was sustained and to the men left without leaving his name
00:28:35
as the investigation into the brutal murders continued a funeral was held for all four members of the mayor's our
00:28:43
family meteos mother Setsuko was so traumatized that she was unable to walk and had to be carried
00:28:52
inside Yasu COEs mother and sister had become so afraid of the house they shared with
00:28:59
the slain family that they left set a gaya all together this situation had left her ruko with a feeling of shame
00:29:08
and to end was plagued by thoughts of suicide the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department established a special task
00:29:18
force to focus exclusively on the murders given that the killer had left behind an
00:29:25
abundance of genetic material expectations were high that he would be promptly identified
00:29:46
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learn a new language and to make it your own the killer had left numerous fingerprints throughout the Missoula's
00:31:29
house his thumbprint had a distinctive swirl with two lines at the center that was likened to a pig's nose police ran
00:31:38
the prints through the Japanese criminal database but didn't find a match they also tested them against to those
00:31:46
obtained from local residence with no success the unflushed feces in the toilet were
00:31:54
compared to the stomach contents of the mayor's our family members all of whom had eaten the same food at their final
00:32:01
meal as the feces differed from the stomach contents it was clear it belonged to the killer
00:32:09
he still consisted of green beans with sesame dressing as this was a popular Japanese dish that is often homemade it
00:32:19
didn't provide any leads based on his footprints at the scene the killer had been wearing a pair of slightly worn in
00:32:28
Slazenger brand tennis or basketball shoes the shoes were manufactured in South Korea between October 1998 and
00:32:37
November 2000 and were one of 4,500 and 30 pairs made they were the equivalent to size 27 and a half in Japan or nine
00:32:49
in Australian sizing which were only ever available to purchase on the South Korean market and had never been sold in
00:32:57
Japan the shoe was luckily white with a gray white or blue sole the killer's hat
00:33:06
was known as a crusher style hat a name derived from the way that such hats could essentially be crushed down to
00:33:14
when he saw us without being damaged making them easy to fit into backpacks or luggage it was made of gray wool with
00:33:22
a black band around the rim and that the label indicated it was sold after September 21 1999 almost three and a
00:33:33
half thousand hats matching this description was sold in Japan between July 1998 and
00:33:39
to November 2000 with a retail value of around 1,900 yen or 30 Australian dollars it was predominantly solved by
00:33:50
retailer Maroof uru corporation with primary sales occurring in the Kanto region of Japan
00:33:58
The Killers green checkered scarf was 30 centimeters wide 130 centimeters long and made of low
00:34:06
quality acrylic fabric it didn't have a tag or label so police reached out to the public
00:34:14
urging anyone who recognized it to come forward several people reported that they had received an identical scarf as
00:34:22
a cheap price or promotional item one person had received it from a junior high school uniform retailer another
00:34:30
from an arcade claw machine and another from a petrol station de Killers black lightweight jacket was identified as a
00:34:41
unique Errol brand air tech jacket in size large in the two months prior to the murders
00:34:49
a total of 82 thousand two jackets of this type were sold nationwide in Japan with the just over 10,000 sales in Tokyo
00:34:58
alone the jackets retailed between thirty-nine hundred and fifty nine hundred yen the equivalent to between 60
00:35:06
and 90 Australian dollars at the time and were sold exclusively by eunuch guru at their retail stores online and by a
00:35:14
mail-order the jackets pockets contained grains of sand that had originated from
00:35:21
the Miura Peninsula Coast located south of Tokyo there were also traces of pollen that came from either an
00:35:30
ornamental Japanese pomegranate plan or a zelkova tree a deciduous species belonging to the ohm family dead leaves
00:35:41
from either a zelkova or willow tree were also found as were traces of bird droppings thought to have come from a
00:35:49
sparrow in addition soil particles were detected and traced to the province that
00:35:55
surrounds South Korea's capital city of Seoul the killers Raglan style sweatshirt was a size large with a pale
00:36:05
gray body and too light purple sleeves it had been sold between August and December of 2000 but the maroof uru
00:36:14
corporation the same retailer that sold The Killers crusher hat and was priced at approximately 1,900 yen or 30
00:36:23
Australian dollars at the time only 130 Raglan sweatshirts of that variety were ever sold throughout Japan at the time
00:36:35
of the murders it was stopped at four stores in Tokyo and only ten had been purchased in the
00:36:41
city police appealed for anyone who had bought the sweatshirt at one of these four stores to contact them to rule
00:36:50
themselves out of the investigation but they were only able to track down one owner urging others to come forward the
00:37:00
police later released a statement that read you may be afraid of reporting this to the police thinking that if you have
00:37:08
this sweatshirt or remember having bought one you may be treated as a criminal there is no need to worry about
00:37:16
such a thing the perpetrator took off his sweatshirt and left it at the crime scene having
00:37:22
the same sweatshirt now would therefore prove that you are not the perpetrator locating the whereabouts of nine other
00:37:30
sweatshirts would directly lead us to identify the perpetrator we need your cooperation on this
00:37:41
the killer had also left behind a pair of adjustable Edwyn brand black leather gloves so as 36 centimeters
00:37:51
given that the murders occurred in the middle of winter and the killer's fingerprints were found throughout the
00:37:57
house it seemed likely he had been wearing them for warmth rather than to avoid leaving prints ten thousand seven
00:38:07
hundred and fifty five pairs of these gloves had been sold between 1998 and to the year 2000 at two primary stores one
00:38:16
of which was the maroof uru corporation where the crusher hat and Raglan sweatshirt had also been purchased two
00:38:25
plain black handkerchiefs belonging to the killer appeared to have been recently washed and donned over the
00:38:33
previous five years a total of 66,500 matching handkerchiefs had been manufactured and sold by Japanese retail
00:38:41
company Muji which sells a variety of household and consumer goods one of the handkerchiefs left at the crime scene
00:38:50
had been folded into a triangular shape and had squeezed edges as though the killer wore it as a facemask
00:38:57
the other was unfolded and had a three centimeter hole cut near its center police suspected this one was used by
00:39:07
the killer as a makeshift pouch for his knife to protect himself against injury this method was known to be used by
00:39:16
employees at fish processing facilities to protect themselves and allow for a firmer grip when cleaning scaling and
00:39:24
filling fish finally there was the black inter gray hip bag left behind by the killer known as a bum bag in Australia
00:39:34
or fanny pack in the United States it was 21 centimeters wide 23 and 1/2 centimeters high and 2 9 and 1/2
00:39:43
centimeters deep which equated to the approximate size of a B 5 note book the belt secured to the bag was 83
00:39:53
centimeters long but had been adjusted to fit a waist - measuring between 70 and 75 centimeters the bag was old and
00:40:02
worn and also came with a shoulder strap so it could be used as a satchel it was
00:40:08
manufactured in Osaka between 1995 and to 1999 with 2,850 sold at discount stores throughout Japan
00:40:20
two strands of black hair believed to belong to the killer were found in the bag they had been intentionally cut
00:40:29
rather than having fallen out naturally with the one measuring two and a half centimeters and to the other one and a
00:40:36
half millimeters also inside was stains from a fluorescent red dye that illuminated when highlighted with a UV
00:40:45
light police had found a similar florescent agent inside the Miyazawa family's garage yet the garage was
00:40:54
locked on the night of the murders with no indication that the killer had gone inside
00:41:01
this raised the possibility that the killer had been to the house on a previous occasion yet the dyes were
00:41:09
determined to be unrelated with the dye inside the bag identified as having come
00:41:15
from a popular highlighter pen that could be purchased at most stationery stores like The Killers jacket pockets
00:41:25
the hip bag also contained granules of sand some of these contained quartz with a similar composition to desert sand
00:41:35
found near the city of Las Vegas in the United States several also contained radioactive monazite believed to
00:41:44
originate from the US state of California including me the Edwards Air Force Base in the southwestern Mojave
00:41:52
Desert other grains were traced to Japan's Miura Peninsula similar to the sand found in the jacket further
00:42:03
remnants found in the hip bag were analyzed to reveal tiny glass spheres of barium titanate powder which is used by
00:42:11
skateboarders as a form of grip tape to prevent their feet from slipping off the
00:42:16
board oils and compounds that had come from a perfume or aftershave were lifted from both the hip bag and handkerchiefs
00:42:26
by compiling the specific combination of elements forensic experts were able to determine that the killer had at one
00:42:34
point been wearing Drakkar Noir the moderately priced order toilette fragrance was manufactured by French
00:42:43
fashion brand Jie LaRoche and had been sold in Japan since 1982 based on the clothing and forensic evidence obtained
00:42:54
from the crime scene the perpetrator was likely between 15 and 35 years of age around 170 centimeters tall of slim
00:43:04
build with the black or blackish brown hair and was right-handed he also had to be agile enough to have exited the house
00:43:13
and via the bathroom window police believed he either lived alone or with family who wouldn't be suspicious
00:43:21
if he was out late at night it was also possible that he struggled with money and that the crime was financially
00:43:30
motivated based on several factors including the traces of griptape found in the hip bag the police theorized that
00:43:40
the killer could have been part of the group of skateboarders that Mikio confronted in the week leading up to his
00:43:46
death both California and to the me Europe initially had a lively skateboarding subculture and a dragon
00:43:55
the work alone had been popular with professional skateboarders throughout the 1980s at the time of the murders
00:44:03
Ragland shirts and hip bags were also commonly worn by skateboarders due to the vast amount of physical and
00:44:17
forensic evidence available it was expected that the suspect would be promptly identified but weeks passed
00:44:24
without any major breakthroughs neighbors and associates of Michio and Yasuko were questioned as to whether
00:44:33
they had recently traveled to both California and the may Europe in insula but none had on Monday April 9 2001
00:44:43
three months after the murders a stone OGIS Osen statue was found on the side of the road that ran alongside the
00:44:52
Sankara River west of the Miyazawa family home this type of statue is known to represent Jizo bodhisattva a buddhist
00:45:03
enlightened being regarded as the guardian of unborn aborted or stillborn babies and of children who died
00:45:10
prematurely the statue was made of heavy white granite and depicted a child a monk preying on a pedestal it was 59
00:45:22
centimeters tall and weighed 19 and a half kilograms on the bottom of the pedestal was an inscription resembling
00:45:30
the Chinese character for the number-6 investigators believed the statue was significant and that it had been left by
00:45:40
the river on either the evening of April 8th or the morning of April 9 they were
00:45:47
unsure whether it had been placed at that location by someone with good intentions or if the killer or someone
00:45:54
close to him was responsible forensic examination of the statue uncovered nothing of significance police
00:46:02
distributed 30,000 posters of the statue appealing for anyone with knowledge about it to come forward and made an
00:46:10
additional request for information about the inscription on the bottom despite these efforts no definite link was drawn
00:46:19
between the statue and the crimes by June 2001 six months had since the murders into 150 police
00:46:30
officers continued to work exclusively on the case during that time a total of 21,000 officers had been involved in
00:46:39
some form or another and had covered 2,700 potential leads but the killer was no closer to being identified the case
00:46:50
languished for years despite the amount of time and resources dedicated to solving it and to the murderer remained
00:46:58
unknown along with his true motive in 2003 family friends and supporters of the slain family hosted a photography
00:47:09
exhibition featuring images of the mayors hours that were returned from police earlier that year among the
00:47:17
collection was a photo of Nina cuddling her newborn baby brother Ray and another
00:47:23
of the family gathered happily around a birthday cake to celebrate Ray's second birthday one of the exhibition's
00:47:31
organizers said we want people not to just think about how heinous the crime was but also how happy the family was in
00:47:41
life given that the killer's sneakers were sold exclusively in South Korea and the soil particles from his jacket
00:47:53
pocket were also traced back to the same country Japanese investigators requested
00:47:58
that South Korean authorities run The Killers fingerprints through their own national database they agreed but no
00:48:06
matches were made in 2006 advanced the DNA testing allowed forensic experts to determine the
00:48:16
killer's racial profile through anthropological analysis of the blood stained sweatshirt found at the scene
00:48:24
the DNA didn't match any of the profiles in the Japanese police database but an ancestral analysis did reveal that the
00:48:33
killer's father had a 1 in 13 chance of being Japanese a 1 in 10 chance of being
00:48:39
Chinese and a 1 in 3 chance of being Korean the killer's mitochondrial DNA sequence revealed the ancestry on his
00:48:49
mother's side was Adriatic and Mediterranean South European as the majority of interracial marriages
00:48:58
between Japanese and European individuals had only occurred within the past couple of generations experts
00:49:05
believed that the killer was more likely to be continental Asian than Japanese or
00:49:10
that the interracial Concepcion had only occurred in his mother or grandmother's
00:49:15
generation by December 2006 six years after the murder a total of 140,000 police officers had been involved in the
00:49:27
investigation in some capacity 98 individuals were still under investigation with police focusing on
00:49:36
people who may have been financially motivated to commit the crime as well as those who may have held a grudge against
00:49:42
the member of the family one former investigator was convinced that the killer had a particular interest in
00:49:51
eight year old Nina Miyazawa as highlighted by the extent of her injuries it was reported that a young
00:49:59
man who frequented the locations where Nina attended ballet and piano lessons had been known to watch her intently and
00:50:06
keep track of her movements additionally his genetic ancestry fit the killer's DNA profile as he had a Japanese father
00:50:17
and southern European mother the former investigator interviewed the suspect and went as far as searching his
00:50:25
home and collecting his fingerprints but the prints didn't match the killer's also in 2006 freelance journalist
00:50:36
touriste Ito published a book titled the set a guy our family murder case confessions of intruders claiming she
00:50:46
had uncovered the truth about the Miyazawa family murders and to the identity of the killer the book
00:50:53
attracted severe criticism from the media and investigators as it was filled with glaring inconsistencies including
00:51:01
falsified quotes from family members in response to the book police chief Takeshi sue cheetah
00:51:09
stated the contents are fundamentally different from the facts in general from the intrusion to the killing method the
00:51:18
criminals own medical treatment personal computer operation escape method victim's behavior belongings
00:51:26
fingerprints etc everything is different from the fact there is a concern that it
00:51:33
will have an adverse effect in December 2007 Yasuko Miyazawa sister in eerie air
00:51:43
published her own book about the murders titled if you can understand the meaning
00:51:48
of this sadness the setter gaya case the story of a loss and rebirth that same month Japan's National Police Agency
00:51:59
announced that a reward of 3 million yen the equivalent of 30,000 Australian dollars at the time was available for
00:52:07
information regarding the Miyazawa family case in the following year it was reported that Japanese police had asked
00:52:16
authorities in China the United States in some Western countries to provide fingerprint records to compare against
00:52:24
their suspect but it is unclear what progress if any was made at the time the murders were committed
00:52:36
Japan had a 15 year statute of limitations on murder charges due to the belief that evidence could be lost or
00:52:44
dissipate over time that witnesses memories can fade and to the demands for harsh penalties can wane as the feelings
00:52:52
of surviving loved ones diminish in 2009 the statute of limitations was increased
00:53:00
from 15 to 25 years but because the Miyazawa family murders occurred before that time the new limitations did not
00:53:08
apply to their case this meant that if their killer was not caught by 2015 he could not be
00:53:17
prosecuted for the murders in February of 2009 Mickey o's 80 year old father Yoshiyuki
00:53:26
Miyazawa and Yasuko sister in Erie Air together with a group of 15 other families whose loved ones were victims
00:53:35
of unsolved murders established an association called the Sora no Kai to help support others in their situation
00:53:45
loosely translated Sora no Kai means infinite time alluding to the ongoing grief and uncertainty the bereaved
00:53:54
family members were forced to endure the purpose of the Sora no car was to persuade the Japanese government to
00:54:03
abolish the statute of limitations on murder altogether with a statement on the group's a website reading the
00:54:12
feelings of our bereaved have never faded in 15 or 25 years the organization also highlighted that modern
00:54:22
improvements in forensics and investigative technology including advanced to DNA testing meant that
00:54:29
evidence didn't necessarily dissipate over time and that it had become easier to prove cases in court even after many
00:54:38
years had passed also supporting the end to the statute of limitation was a group called the national crime
00:54:46
victims Association and public support for the cause began to increase on June 12 the Soron oak I gave the Minister of
00:54:57
Justice a petition containing forty five thousand signatures with the number soon
00:55:03
growing to over seventy eight thousand their efforts paid off and in April 2010 Japan abolished the statute of
00:55:13
limitations on murder with immediate effect including the rule existing unsolved cases where the statute of
00:55:21
limitations had not yet expired two and a half years later on September 6 2012 Mikio s 84 year old father Yoshiyuki
00:55:35
passed away in hospital after months spent battling pneumonia up until his death Yoshiyuki worked tirelessly to
00:55:44
find answers to the questions surrounding the murder of his son's family prior to his death he commented
00:55:53
the culprit may not be arrested while I'm alive but why did four people have to be killed I really want to ask the
00:56:02
culprit but the real reason the truth [Music] former police chief Takeshi Tsuchida
00:56:09
who helped establish the saw Renault car with Yoshiyuki told reporters he was remorseful that the case remained
00:56:17
unresolved and expressed his desire for progress in late December 2014 the reward for
00:56:26
information was increased to 20 million yen the equivalent to around two hundred
00:56:31
and seven thousand Australian dollars at the time that same month Japanese television network Asahi had a
00:56:40
program about the Miyazawa family murders in which a reporter and former member of the FBI used criminal
00:56:48
behavioral profiling to uncover clues as to the killer's identity they deduced that the person responsible was an
00:56:57
acquaintance who held a grudge against the family and implied that Yasuko sister in supported their opinion after
00:57:06
the program aired and claimed the show used the various production and editing methods to create the illusion that she
00:57:13
agreed with their conclusion when she did not she lodged a formal complaint that Japan's broadcasting ethics and
00:57:22
program improvement organization known as the BPO alleging that the program misrepresented her in a subsequent press
00:57:32
conference and said I felt that what I had built was destroyed by this program it is regrettable as I have accepted
00:57:42
every kind of media interview hoping it will lead to the case being solved the Asahi Network had declined to answer a
00:57:53
quest for an apology stating that it was simply a difference in opinions the BPO
00:57:59
determined that while the TV program did not damage the social reputation of N or
00:58:05
the bereaved family or violate their human rights the content lacked fairness and a proper consideration of
00:58:13
broadcasting ethics [Music] and was pleased that the committee legitimized her concerns and to the
00:58:20
Asahi Network agreed they would take the BPOs feedback into consideration in the
00:58:25
future from the onset of the investigation Miki OHS computer records had led the
00:58:33
police to believe that the killer had remained inside the family's home until around 10 o'clock the morning after the
00:58:40
murders however in early 2015 it was announced that the 10:00 a.m. computer activity had likely been triggered by
00:58:50
the device's mass falling onto the floor rather than someone actively accessing it yasuko's mother
00:58:59
Haruko who discovered the bodies agreed that it was possible she could have knocked the mouse off Miki OHS desk when
00:59:06
she moved through the house although she couldn't remember whether or not this had happened it is unclear whether
00:59:14
police knew this information earlier on and chose to withhold it from the public
00:59:19
but regardless it meant that any potential sightings or suspicious movement in the neighborhood during the
00:59:26
earlier hours of that morning gained significance [Music] to mark the 15th anniversary of the
00:59:35
murders on December 30 2015 investigators gathered at the front of the me as I was home to lay flowers and
00:59:43
hold a silent prayer by this point almost 250,000 to law enforcement officers had worked on the case and
00:59:53
police had received the total of 12 thousand five hundred and forty five pieces of information relating to it
01:00:01
leads continued to come in with 324 new pieces of information gathered in 2015 alone and investigators renewed their
01:00:12
vow to find the killer [Music] to coincide with the anniversary one of Japan's most famous investigative
01:00:24
journalists using the pen name Fumiya Ichi Hoshi released a book titled the set a guy a family murder case 15 years
01:00:34
on the new facts itchy Hoshi spent several years researching the book during which he concluded that the
01:00:43
killer was a former South Korean soldier turned killer for hire identified by the
01:00:49
pseudonym Lee inin inin was recruited into the South Korean military at a young age and was bullied by his
01:00:58
superiors which caused the shift in his behavior he was trained in self-defense and Taekwondo and had been undertaking
01:01:08
combat and shooting training at a mercenary school when he met a Japanese man identified as mr. Kannada
01:01:16
according to Ichi Hoshi mr. Kannada was the former head of a religious group in Tokyo who used the mercenary school to
01:01:25
recruit young men into his criminal organization Kannada had lost a large amount of money due to failed businesses
01:01:34
and began working with the dodgy real-estate brokers who specialized in buying homes at discounted rates and
01:01:41
then selling the land to developers were elevated profits these brokers had reached out to the mayor's hours
01:01:50
requesting they sell their home to them instead of receiving the compensation money they were rode from the government
01:01:57
as a result of losing their house to the expansion of sushi gaya park the Miyazawa had refused prompting mr.
01:02:07
Kannada to hire Lee ennen to intimidate them into accepting the deal to gain access to the family in an allegedly
01:02:16
pose there's an associate of mr. Canada's who could provide a learning and speech therapy support to
01:02:22
six-year-old array me as our he then exceeded his orders by brutally murdering the whole bin
01:02:30
and attempting to steal their compensation money in his book itchy huh she claimed that in 2003 he secretly
01:02:41
collected ally in ins fingerprints and unofficially compared them to the prints identified at the mayor's our crime
01:02:47
scene revealing a match flight departure and immigration records also showed that
01:02:56
the day after the murders in Ana flew to Taiwan from Haneda Airport located 20 kilometers southeast of the me Azhar was
01:03:04
house he had also previously traveled to California which could account for the sand found in the killer's clothing
01:03:13
after the murders in an and mr. kannada allegedly had a falling out and in and began working as an assassin in South
01:03:22
Korea and the United States before eventually working in armed groups in the Philippines and then acting as a
01:03:30
free assassin in response to Ichi Hoshi's claims former police chief Takeshi su Tschida said it's 100%
01:03:42
nonsense if the book was true the criminal would have been caught it's okay if it was a fictional novel but I
01:03:51
have strong doubts calling it nonfiction in his book itchy Hoshi criticized the media for drip feeding information to
01:04:01
the public over the years rather than releasing new details as they came to light which he believed to made it even
01:04:08
more difficult for the truth to be exposed he also severely critiqued the police
01:04:15
handling of the case saying they made several assumptions early on that hindered the investigation
01:04:22
he claimed the number of fingerprints and forensic evidence at the scene led to complacency as the police assumed the
01:04:30
killer would be quickly identified moreover the brutality of the crimes had led them to assume the killer must have
01:04:38
been suffering from a mental illness or personality disorder consequently they had focused on
01:04:46
patients who had been recently discharged from psychiatric hospitals which II huh she believed was a red
01:04:52
herring it she has she thought that the police focused on one possibility at a time before moving on to the next rather
01:05:02
than conducting a wide scale investigation that examined a range of possibilities simultaneously for example
01:05:10
itchy ha she believed that because the killer had eaten a typical Japanese dish before committing the murders and was
01:05:18
able to read kanji police had tunnel vision about his nationality and failed to consider that he may not be Japanese
01:05:28
following the publication of his book itchy ha she gave an interview to one line newspaper Japan today in which he
01:05:36
stated unless there's a miracle and that the criminal surrenders himself or his fingerprints match to another crime I
01:05:45
believe there is no chance he will be arrested as of December 2019 19 years since the mayor's our family were
01:05:58
murdered 35 members of Tokyo's metropolitan police force were still assigned exclusively to the case of the
01:06:08
130 Raglan sweatshirts sold throughout Japan that matched the one belonging to the killer police have only been able to
01:06:16
track down and to rule out 12 owners the case remains one of Japan's longest-running and most mysterious
01:06:25
unsolved crimes with the streets of citta gaya still featuring science appealing for information the 20 million
01:06:34
yen reward money is still available making it the highest cash reward ever offered in Japan
01:06:43
although former police chief Takeshi Tsuchida retired in 2008 he still works on the case in an unofficial capacity on
01:06:52
the 19th anniversary of the crimes he told Australian news broadcaster the ABC when I think about the feelings of the
01:07:02
victims families who lost their loved ones all of a sudden I just couldn't pass on this case to my successors after
01:07:10
working as an officer for 41 years when I think about the brutality in the way he murdered before I just wonder how
01:07:20
could a sane person carry out such an extreme crime Fujita said he remained in close contact
01:07:29
with meteos mother Setsuko paying her regular visits preparing her meals and praying at the
01:07:37
shrine she had set up for her family the MS our investigation now sits in the hands of Superintendent Manabu EDA who
01:07:47
remains confident that the killer will be caught Superintendent EDA stated it is our mission to arrest the criminal
01:07:57
who murdered four innocent people including two young children and make him atone for his crime it's an
01:08:05
atrocious case rarely seen in Japan's criminal history and we think solving this case will help prevent similar
01:08:13
crimes happening in the future the former home of the mayors our family remains standing on land that now
01:08:23
belongs to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government since the murders the house has been subject to a preservation order
01:08:31
but on December 26 2019 the police issued a demolition notice as the house is at risk of collapsing
01:08:42
investigators stated their belief that all possible evidence has been preserved and that there would be no impact on the
01:08:49
case if the house was demolished Yasuko sister Ann disagreed and filed a submission for police to withdraw their
01:08:58
notice of demolition she told reporters for Japanese daily newspaper the Asahi Shimbun there
01:09:07
definitely are things that can be felt only at the crime scene I would like people to get a sense of how the
01:09:14
Miyazawa family lived their lives that sense could lead to a break in the case to gain support and decided to open the
01:09:27
house to the public the family's belongings remained stacked inside cardboard boxes leaving little room to
01:09:34
move around the small house nina andreas height measurements were still marked on
01:09:41
the living room wall the last of which was recorded in August of 2000 an told reporters that the size of the home
01:09:51
meant there was a very little room for the family to flee from the perpetrator which she believes would have only added
01:09:57
to their terror quote the family lived humbly and worked hard it is heart-wrenching to be in this house I am
01:10:08
still deeply sorry that I could not save them roughly a year after the murders and
01:10:17
channeled her grief into something positive by creating a picture book titled the story of Misha Carr the bear
01:10:24
always connected using her book she began running support seminars across Japan for grieving families who were
01:10:33
dealing with the loss of a loved one due to crime and said that she had changed from being someone who needed help from
01:10:41
others into one who assisted those grieving through their pain she eventually became a member of the set
01:10:50
agai award grief support Study Committee and a part-time lecturer at the Sofia University grief Research Institute
01:11:00
meteos mother Setsuko still keeps a shrine to Mikio Yasuko nina and array e at her home
01:11:08
displaying photographs of the family along with the display captain full of nina andreas toys she prays for the
01:11:17
family often and hopes that the killer will one day be brought to justice in an interview with the ABC in December of
01:11:25
2019 Setsuko said she was deeply saddened by the fact that her husband had passed
01:11:32
away before the case was solved commenting that troubled us the most now that he's gone I feel I have to do the
01:11:43
hard work myself reflecting on the murders she lamented I always wonder how the children would
01:11:53
have grown up my biggest regret is that I never got to see them grow up [Music] [Music]
01:12:22
you