Japan - Miyazawa family of 4 murdered, Setagaya, Tokyo, 30 Dec 2000 #2

[Tiger Stripes]

Absolutely. Skateboard or not, how do we explain his invisibility at these stations? Especially if he had a skateboard — a young guy with a skateboard, an injury and no jacket, possibly ‘looking foreign’…

Literally every time someone has said this, I’ve never seen it backed up by anything. I don’t know if that’s because street view makes Soshigaya Park look sparse? But I’ve been through there in the day and night, my first occasion was something like 5am while jet lagged (the brain doesn’t make good choices) and every single time, there was foot traffic. Even at that very early hour of the morning.

Yeah, for sure. Soshigaya is anything but "do-inaka" ("the middle of nowhere", "boondocks"). There are always people around there (so...not like a small, rural town where people would immediately notice some outsider walking around/past a nearby house). Also, even in high-tech Japan (sincere; it really is a high-tech country, beyond what many in the West would realize, IMO), security devices like Ring doorbell cams (or a Japanese counterpart) were virtually non-existent. What would have not been "non-existent" would have been...the local "neighborhood network"! (And yes, we do know that Haruko-san, the grandma, lived next-door.) But...who else may have lived up/down that street, I wonder? Even if they moved away long ago, their (now) adult children would likely be a great source of information. JMOE, but Japanese people are amazing observers (think about it: their very language and its intricate nuances is linked to just a teeny "pen stroke" here or there, and such a stroke can change an entire meaning!): Someone in that neighborhood (perhaps several "someones") knows something...

MOO

 

[Sor Juana]

Still thinking that, numb to any sense of good or evil, the intruder chose to do a quintessentially "Japanese young person" thing at the moment: to play a video game!

For some reason, the police are not disclosing the name of the folder. I think the folder's name might offer some clues. If the folder was named after a game, it would suggest that the killer wasn't looking for anything specific but was simply passing time on the computer. This would imply that the earlier bloodbath wasn't linked to any specific motive, but rather to a random mental outburst.

 

[fridaybaker]

Japan Festivals - December

Japanese Festivals December. See a list of the main festivals in Japan in December.

www.japan-experience.com

Lengthy, lots of photos, possible repost, rbbm.

The faceless killer who slaughtered an entire family and then vanished for two decades

First he murdered the Miyazawa family. Then he spent half a day eating their food, browsing their internet search history, and napping on their couch. Why can't Japanese police find the killer?

www.abc.net.au

By North Asia correspondent Jake Sturmer and Yumi Asada in Setagaya 28 Dec 2019
''The end of the year is one of the most momentous occasions in Japan, a chance to celebrate a fresh start and welcome new beginnings.
It was a frosty winter's night in Setagaya, Tokyo when eight-year-old Niina, her younger brother Rei and their parents Mikio and Yasuko were at home, preparing for the festivities.
But the Miyazawa family would never celebrate that day.''

''Police believe the attacker continued to stab Niina and Yasuko far beyond the point at which they had died.''
It's a question still seared in the mind of 72-year-old Takeshi Tsuchida.
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The now-retired police chief played an integral role in the case — and cannot let it go.

An officer for 41 years, he rose to the ranks of chief officer at the Seijyo Police station, the force tasked with investigating the family's murder.

The facial expressions from the bodies he inspected still remain seared into his memory.

"When you compare victims who die from illness or natural causes to those who are suddenly murdered, they look very different," he said.
"They have furious facial expressions. They are mortified and regretful. I imagine that all of the victims felt the same way, just feeling regret."
"When I think about the brutality in the way he murdered the four, I just wonder, how could a sane person carry out such an extreme crime?" he said.

"He slashed them from above the chest to the face as if he tormented them. It was extremely brutal.

"And the way he finished them off in the very end … [it was so horrific] we couldn't show those scars to the devastated victims' families. There are no other cases in which the victims have been cut up like this," he said.''

So poignant.