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

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fridaybaker said:
You think they fear for their own lives? Interesting.

I have to ask, though: Can you enlighten me as to what an "NPE" is? TIA!

Okay, I just looked it up. Are you referring to "Non-Parent Event" or something like that? The killer suspected that his father was not his actual father, and somehow mistook Mikio Miyazawa for his biological father? Killed out of rage (but why the whole family?) and the rummaging through the place was him looking for paternity documents. I don't know......
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Yes, non-parental event, non-paternity, rather.
It is either more common than we think, or, the commonality might be my observation bias.

So I wonder if the young man, the future perpetrator, found about having a different father from some gossips, or maybe his paternal grandmother didn’t like his mother and yapped something, or maybe he was simply mentally ill and had a delusion about having a different biofather. If that was a delusion, then, it was simply Miyazawa’s tough luck. But if indeed the perp was the case of NPE, he obviously was following totally wrong leads. Well, we know that they were wrong, because Mikio and the perp had different Ys. But if the perp was of Japanese origin but born outside of Japan, he could have been easily mistaken about the paternity. I think some initial information matched, but soon the data diverged, and he was still following the wrong lead. BTW, it often happens in genealogy.

The first time I read that the killer was looking through papers, I thought he could have been searching for some birth or marriage certificates. It could also explain the difference in the style of murders. Rei - a boy perceived as the younger brother? Whom he killed, probably, unwillingly? Yatsuko and Nina - women who took his (projected) mother’s place. Took him away from perceived father. And Mikio - still a father... About Yatsuko - looking at the sister, I can imagine a lot of inner strength in Yatsuko, how she might have fought for herself and her daughter. Maybe this further enraged the killer?

When did the perpetrator find out that he was mistaken? Sitting in the subway? That could explain the confusion. Or talking to his father? Definitely, reading the newspapers and realizing that he and his “alleged” father had different Y-haplogroups? Or was it ever published?

(I also wonder if Nina, a very European name, played some role in the overall confusion. JMO.)

If my theory is right, he probably feels badly, unless he totally suppressed the episode.

But looking at the house, it is quite symmetrical. I wonder if the tenants of the adjacent house were afraid that he merely got confused about the layout. Also possible.
 
cenazoic said:
Random, based in this and other comments about Ann’s unwillingness to speak/have DNA tested:

Do we know the genealogies of the Miyazawa or Yasuko’s families?
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We do not. I can only say for sure that the killer's blood type matched nobody in the Miyazawa's house. Or Ann's house next door.
 
fridaybaker said:
So Ann is not opposed to using the press herself when she desires and is able to direct/control the narrative, but rails against it otherwise. Interesting.

Faceless, do you know how old Ann’s son was at the time? Could he have been a compatriot of the young man you suspect?

My understanding of life on foreign U.S. military posts/bases, is that often the soldiers and their families, and I suppose civilian workers as well, have little interaction with the general population. Children go to separate schools, etc. However, maybe I’m off base on that. Could Ann’s son have gone to school with your suspect?
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Exactly this. She mobilised the press to get her way and prevent the demolition of the house.

Ann's son was 13 at the time of the murders. There are a few photos of him at the time. His fingerprints, though, did not match that of the killer.

The Yokota base is really quite large. It does indeed have its own high school. But from the personnel living there I spoke to frequently go off base. Everything from shopping to day trips. I think it's very unlikely Ann's son went to this high school, though. Firstly, I'm not sure if it was open to Japanese students. Secondly, it's at least 40 minutes away. But there are at least 8 schools within 1-2km of Ann's house. So, is it possible if Ann's son knew the killer? Yes, anything is possible. I just have zero to indicate that.
 
fridaybaker said:
I seem to recall reading/hearing somewhere that An Irie is not Yasuko's sister's real name? That it's an anagram of the two childrens' names. Yet, that is the only name I see anywhere associated with Yasuko's sister, even on Wikipedia and in various news articles. If this is true, I wonder why? I've never heard of a victim's family member using an alias.

Also, I've tried to find her Twitter account. Faceless, can you tell me if it's in English or Japanese? (If Japanese, perhaps Google will help -or not help, as is usually the case!)
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Yes, her real name surname is Kaneda.

Ann Irie is the name she adopted a long time ago, I believe, to separate herself from this case. I've never heard of a relative of the victim wanting to do this, either. Her twitter is in Japanese -- it was Ryushi who found it, I'm afraid I don't have it to hand. If we have any Japanese speakers here, I'm sure they could find it easily (I find Papago far better to translate Japanese than Google!)
 
AC4RD said:
I'm baffled by the lack of information from the police. And I don't see why they don't release the information about the sand--if it HAS been carefully tested. It seems to me to be a very significant issue. MHO, of course. --ken
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This is my question, too. Either they don't see the importance. Or they don't want to. It would be so simple to update their page to say the sand was tested and it came from X. Or rule it out of the case.
 
fridaybaker said:
You think they fear for their own lives? Interesting.

I have to ask, though: Can you enlighten me as to what an "NPE" is? TIA!

Okay, I just looked it up. Are you referring to "Non-Parent Event" or something like that? The killer suspected that his father was not his actual father, and somehow mistook Mikio Miyazawa for his biological father? Killed out of rage (but why the whole family?) and the rummaging through the place was him looking for paternity documents. I don't know......
Click to expand...
This is possible and I cannot rule it out definitively.

Though if my person of interest is the actual killer, they look nothing alike and given place of birth etc, it would basically be impossible. But it's entirely possible my person of interest is not the killer.
 
fridaybaker said:
Kitsey,

This is something I’ve missed here: An “uneasy relationship between Mikio’s family and Ann’s”. How do we know this and what was it about? TIA.
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All I have to add on this:

1) Mikio insisted on soundproofing on both sides -- his house and Ann's hosue.
2) Ann has spoken about their relationship and how it was sometimes imperfect. Read into that what you will.
3) I can tell you that the relationship between Ann and Setsuko Miyazawa is, to put it kindly, not ideal.
 
Charlot123 said:
Yes, non-parental event, non-paternity, rather.
It is either more common than we think, or, the commonality might be my observation bias.

So I wonder if the young man, the future perpetrator, found about having a different father from some gossips, or maybe his paternal grandmother didn’t like his mother and yapped something, or maybe he was simply mentally ill and had a delusion about having a different biofather. If that was a delusion, then, it was simply Miyazawa’s tough luck. But if indeed the perp was the case of NPE, he obviously was following totally wrong leads. Well, we know that they were wrong, because Mikio and the perp had different Ys. But if the perp was of Japanese origin but born outside of Japan, he could have been easily mistaken about the paternity. I think some initial information matched, but soon the data diverged, and he was still following the wrong lead. BTW, it often happens in genealogy.

The first time I read that the killer was looking through papers, I thought he could have been searching for some birth or marriage certificates. It could also explain the difference in the style of murders. Rei - a boy perceived as the younger brother? Whom he killed, probably, unwillingly? Yatsuko and Nina - women who took his (projected) mother’s place. Took him away from perceived father. And Mikio - still a father... About Yatsuko - looking at the sister, I can imagine a lot of inner strength in Yatsuko, how she might have fought for herself and her daughter. Maybe this further enraged the killer?

When did the perpetrator find out that he was mistaken? Sitting in the subway? That could explain the confusion. Or talking to his father? Definitely, reading the newspapers and realizing that he and his “alleged” father had different Y-haplogroups? Or was it ever published?

(I also wonder if Nina, a very European name, played some role in the overall confusion. JMO.)

If my theory is right, he probably feels badly, unless he totally suppressed the episode.

But looking at the house, it is quite symmetrical. I wonder if the tenants of the adjacent house were afraid that he merely got confused about the layout. Also possible.
Click to expand...
Your theory is entirely possible, of course.

It wouldn't fit with the person of interest I'm looking into, the man with the scars. But like I say, I could very well be wrong about him and, if so, it would leave your theory still on the table.

And it's Niina, with two 'i's. Which is a Japanese name. Although not super common.

Ann Irie and her family next door claim their hear only one single banging noise at around 11pm. But they hear no screams. When this seeming contradiction is raised, I think the soundproofing is what they would point to as an explanation. But when my sound guy was at the house itself looking at the walls, he was adamant that there was no possible way any kind of soundproofing would be able to muffle screaming at that proximity with old, wooden walls. But if we take Ann's family's comments as true -- that they only heard one banging sound -- then they would have been relatively unconcerned that night. And that seems to fit with the actions the next day. Haruko, Ann and Yasuko's mother, discovers the bodies around 10am. The police are called at 10:50am. This is almost exactly 12 hours after the killer broke into the house.
 
I think I’m finally forming a theory. For me, the fact that the home was somewhat isolated, at least from businesses and other houses, is important. I just think it’s too much of a coincidence for the Miyazawas (all or one of them) to be targeted specifically and it just so happens that the house is isolated. (Now, there is the fact that it’s actually two homes which share a wall. I’d be interested to know if this is common in the Tokyo area.)

I don’t mean that they weren’t targeted at all: Perhaps they were indeed known to the killer. I’m just thinking that it was more of a crime of opportunity, rather than someone targeting them specifically for revenge or what have you. I’m thinking that this was a thrill kill. The killer needed a place that would give him some time to kill at leisure (to enjoy it). A house in a relatively quiet place would fit the bill. (And, let’s face it. Although there was another, distinct, home sharing a wall, it worked for the killer - the other family didn’t hear anything.)

Now, if this were a random thrill kill, what was the killer searching for inside the house? Nothing. The turning out of files and rummaging through drawers, dumping contents in the tub and toilet, were simply curiosity. Destructive curiosity, like the type of curiosity that led him to not just kill an entire family, complete with two utterly charming and sweet, innocent children, but to savage them.

Remember, he spent some time on the computer, but to what avail? Again, it seems like simple curiosity to me. He couldn’t find much, because it was password protected.

This theory to me fits with a young killer. Someone without the “preservation” fear that comes with age and experience. He stayed in the house out of that lack of fear, maybe waiting for a train scheduled in the morning. Someone to whom destructive curiosity would mean throwing papers about. Who might be looking for things and not really knowing what he should be looking for.

At least, that’s where I am right now.
 
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I should add (to my already very long post above) that, remember, LE looked carefully at the family and those around them, for evidence of things they might be targeted for, such as infidelities, financial problems, conflict, etc. They came up with nothing.

Thrill kill. Isolated house. AND HE GOT AWAY WITH IT, bottom line.
 
fridaybaker said:
I think I’m finally forming a theory. For me, the fact that the home was somewhat isolated, at least from businesses and other houses, is important. I just think it’s too much of a coincidence for the Miyazawas (all or one of them) to be targeted specifically and it just so happens that the house is isolated. (Now, there is the fact that it’s actually two homes which share a wall. I’d be interested to know if this is common in the Tokyo area.)

I don’t mean that they weren’t targeted at all: Perhaps they were indeed known to the killer. I’m just thinking that it was more of a crime of opportunity, rather than someone targeting them specifically for revenge or what have you. I’m thinking that this was a thrill kill. The killer needed a place that would give him some time to kill at leisure (to enjoy it). A house in a relatively quiet place would fit the bill. (And, let’s face it. Although there was another, distinct, home sharing a wall, it worked for the killer - the other family didn’t hear anything.)

Now, if this were a random thrill kill, what was the killer searching for inside the house? Nothing. The turning out of files and rummaging through drawers, dumping contents in the tub and toilet, were simply curiosity. Destructive curiosity, like the type of curiosity that led him to not just kill an entire family, complete with two utterly charming and sweet, innocent children, but to savage them.

Remember, he spent some time on the computer, but to what avail? Again, it seems like simple curiosity to me. He couldn’t find much, because it was password protected.

This theory to me fits with a young killer. Someone without the “preservation” fear that comes with age and experience. He stayed in the house out of that lack of fear, maybe waiting for a train scheduled in the morning. Someone to whom destructive curiosity would mean throwing papers about. Who might be looking for things and not really knowing what he should be looking for.

At least, that’s where I am right now.
Click to expand...
Behind the Miyazawa house was the kid's playground which would've been empty at night. On one side is the main path that runs through Soshigaya Park. One the other, a quiet river that runs by. As far as Tokyo homes go, it was really quite isolated... Though not completely. You can see how close the neighbouring house is where Ann lived:

Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 22.08.15.png

I certainly agree his motive could have been for a thrill. It would explain the seeming lack of connection while still acknowledging the total brutality he shows in the murders. And it's also a safe bet to think the killer was young. This is the official angle of the Tokyo MPD. They revised his age to 15-20s only a few years ago.

A few minor quibbles: Mikio's email was password-protected. Not the computer. The killer did log on. The only thing we know for sure that he did was to create a new folder for some reason. Though he was on there for 5 minutes so it's safe to assume he did other things too.

As for the location: the killer would've likely had a good idea the house literally next door would've been inhabited. Not only that, but there was a house over the street that was also inhabited (a couple who were interviewed but heard nothing and saw nothing). And one more house next to them that was inhabited. So, yes. The murder scene was relatively isolated but also not completely remote and disconnected. Plus, the killer would have had to have assumed nobody would phone the cops. It's still a big risk.

Which is why his actions after the murders themselves are all the more puzzling. How could he have known that nobody heard a scream and the police were on their way over?
 
A little off topic, but the houses both look so large from the outside, but tiny on the inside. (Mother and daughter were sleeping in a small attic-like space with a pull-down ladder for access?) !!
 
Maybe there wasn’t really much screaming? I’m no expert on this topic, but maybe they were too scared to scream initially and then couldn’t really get screams out as they were being stabbed. Maybe more like low, muffled sounds as they were shielding their heads and faces.

I don’t know, but either the “close-by” neighbors were in on it, which doesn’t seem to be the case, or they selectively heard banging, but not screaming. And, how reliable this is or not, someone outside the residence reported hearing an argument, but the family next door, didn’t.

Could it be that there just wasn’t much screaming?
 
I apologize if this has been brought up before. I can’t remember.

I think the killer’s clothing mostly fits, or at least isn’t inconsistent with, a doctor’s teenage son: Trendy, newest season, fairly expensive brands, and young. (Except for the hat, maybe, which is likely one of the type of clothing items outside of one’s normal attire, that one would don when doing a crime. Well, maybe. In the movies, anyway.)
 
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