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

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This is brilliant. Illegal I’m sure, but I’d do it and apologize afterwards.

When I first heard if this case I thought of all the possible suspects’s DNA the family may have all over the possessions that were handed back to them. I would have tested that and done genetic genealogy on it if I were them.
I think it's possible there's even traces of the killer's DNA to this day inside the house. As I understand it, it's legal for that to be tested privately. I have no answers as to why that hasn't already happened.
 
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And where do we think the perp was injured?

Did he stab himself, or did one of the Miyazawa family injure him?

If he stabbed himself, then was it in the guts, the thigh, or his opposite hand?
He cut his own hand. There's detail on this throughout the thread (which I appreciate is massive by now)
 
I don't know if a severely injured perp would raid the fridge for food.
When do we think he stems the bloodflow from his injury? Is it before or after all of the killings?
He's in the house for around 3 hours. And he's not *severely* injured but he does cut himself significantly enough to lose a fair amount of blood and go through the family's first aid supplies. Possible that after an hour or two passes, he gets hungry and two things can be true.

I would say almost certainly he stops the bleeding when everyone is dead.
 
Yes, my feeling is that whatever the killer's interest in computers, and we can assume it is not zero given that he accesses the family computer during the night, there is no connection between him and 2Chan.

I read that Mikio was interested in anime. Could he share a connection with another the murderer through that interest?
 
Perhaps this has been stated before so my apologies but the killer discarding the family’s documents into the toilet bowl with waste in it was not only very gross but IMO may show a level of contempt for both the family and the LE investigators who he expected to be alerted about the crime at some point. He must have also known that one or more investigators would be responsible for the task of retrieving and cleaning the docs which would have been a disgusting process. Perhaps he did it to further contaminate the evidence in case his fingerprints or something were on them but it does seem to me he did it to mock and further disrespect/degrade both his victims and those who would come to investigate the crimes he committed against them.

It does somewhat make me wonder if the perp had a minor run-in with the LE in Japan once before and perhaps demonstrated a mocking and oppositional attitude towards them then too?

It also makes me wonder if he possibly regularly publicly ridiculed the police and voiced opinions of how little he thought of them in front of any of his peers or family members or if this attitude was notable by anyone in his community before or after the murders and may help, even if a little, in identifying him or his behavior?
 
No, not impossible, I just find it very unlikely. As I've said many times, I don't think he's a Japanese kid due to varying factors, not least of which is the access to Edwards AFB. So, then we would be talking about likely a foreign kid (assuming the police were right about him being young) who lives off the grid for 23 years without being able to get proper employment or be subject to background checks. But, at the same time, never stealing anything or getting in any kind of trouble. It's possible, of course, that he has a wealthy family protecting him and hiding him within Japan.

As for Hokkaido, I cannot speak to its variances from Japanese traditions -- my take was that it is simply Japan. But as for police presence being unwelcome: police in Japan have more powers than almost any other comparable force in the world. Outside of organised crime (which I understand is dwindling with each year) 'no-go zones' simply do not exist. I think the killer would have a hard time living amongst thieves in some den or whatever. But of course, this could just be my own ignorance speaking.

My feeling is that if he is still in Japan, he is dead, his bones up on a mountain somewhere. Or he's alive and well but far away. Both require the last 23 years to be far more unremarkable than the alternative.
Thank you again for being so thorough and sharing so much insight and information with us!

I was wondering if it is possible, in respect to your POI or in general, to possibly trace school records to either narrow down a possible suspect or to show patterns of behavior that may further indicate your POI’s involvement in the murders? For example, I read in the article below that most children of the military attend the local public schools near the bases. Would it be possible for LE to screen or look through school and enrollment records near Edwards to see if they find a student who has similar family history of the suspect (parents in Air Force, possible access to wealth or money, relocation to Japan, father of East Asian background) or behavior (like style of dress, bilingual or multilingual with fluency in Japanese, style of dress, possible history of breaking and entering, stealing, concerning/violent or homicidal ideation, possible skateboarder)?

I understand, however, this may not be most feasible option as school records or most records pertaining to minors are often sealed. It was just a thought in case LE could access the proper legal routes to evaluate or investigate any saved old school records, including those for students or families that may have been a cause of concern or whose parents were in the military and for whom special adjustments were made in helping them adjust and anticipation of another future relocation.


 
Has anyone considered the possibility that the murderer might have committed suicide, in a remote location, after the murder, as an explanation for why he isn't on any radar screen? (This assumes that the aforementioned P.O.I. isn't the murderer....)
 
Has anyone considered the possibility that the murderer might have committed suicide, in a remote location, after the murder, as an explanation for why he isn't on any radar screen? (This assumes that the aforementioned P.O.I. isn't the murderer....)
Yes it’s definitely a a possibility. It’s one of the three obvious buckets, basically.

A couple of things on this: there is a lot of rough, very inaccessible terrain in Japan. Killing yourself in a remote nook would be very feasible. But Japan puts more resources into recovering bodies in remote locations than almost anywhere given its suicide rates. Secondly, the killer would have to access this kind of area and do it almost immediately after the murders to give himself the best chance of success. If you can call it that. Thirdly, the TMPD have an open and indefinite court order for all recovered male bodies to be finger-printed against the killer’s.

Last thing I’ll say. It’s of course possible he killed himself realising there was no way out of this. But certainly his actions after the murders don’t seem to fit with that. He patches himself up, that’s self-preservation. Eats melon and ice cream. Drinks barley tea. On a very cursory level, this doesn’t ‘feel’ suicidal. And I suppose just from a practical point, if he was remorseful or something, he could’ve just handed himself in. The death penalty is guaranteed.
 
I’m almost done reading through the 50+ pages of this thread, I’d really, really like everyone here to not make the same mistake I have. I’ll try and be concise, and won’t get heavy on details.

Years ago, I got heavily invested in a somewhat local murder from 1979 that absolutely tore at my heart. Unrealistically, I wanted to solve it, but my more realistic goal was to get it in front of the public’s eyes to stir up discussion and, hopefully, lead to tips. The entire process took a heavy emotional toll on me, but I was able to get the information I’d learned out via a podcast (not my own, some great people did me a huge solid.)

Anyway, onto my mistake. A direct family member or friend of the victim not wanting to talk isn’t suspicious. Them rejecting an offer for financial help to process evidence isn’t suspicious. Them not clearing up statements to the public that cast a shadow of suspicion on them is in itself not suspicious.
When I attempted to speak to friends related to the victim in the crime I mentioned, I could not grasp why they wouldn’t want to talk to me. Beyond the crime, I wanted to give the victim a voice and show who she was, and no one would talk about her. Why wouldn’t best friends want the world to know how great of a person she was? Why wouldn’t someone want to clear the air of any suspicion towards them?

The one friend who I did speak with a few times laid it out pretty well. Talking about it hurts. Thinking about it hurts. Even with an opportunity to lend a hand and potentially solve the crime, it’s just too painful.

And that’s really it. Could Yasuko’s sister open the house for DNA collection and have it be analyzed overseas, and potentially locate a suspect? Absolutely, and that would be fantastic. Is it at all weird that she won’t? No. Some family and friends need to accept what happened in order to deal with it. They don’t let their minds return, they don’t want to get their hopes up by the promise of help from others. Clearing up anything that the public, such as us, may think is suspicious about them will do nothing but drag them back into a place they never want to be again. I'm absolutely sure they want the crime solved, but I’m also sure they want to think about it as little as possible.
 
On the subject of the TMPD being likely to find the killer if he was in any way related to the Miyazawa family, I'm reminded of many historical cases where the killer was well known to the victim(s) and somehow evaded detection.

There was a case in the early 1970's where a little girl (I'm afraid I can't remember her name) went missing on the way to church and was later found murdered. Almost 50 years later it turned out the pastor of the church killed her. An obvious suspect who was never seriously looked into for one reason or another.

Due to Japan's rules (or lack of specific rules) on using DNA, they're effectively where other countries were 25+ years ago. Having access to copious amounts of the killer's DNA is useless if LE can't do anything with it.

As I understand it, Japanese LE can only use DNA to compare against an already-known suspect--and that requires having a suspect.
 
Yes, I've often wondered how the killer got away. The family car was in the garage and that's the one room the killer never enters according to the TMPD. So, either the killer didn't know how to drive or simply figured it was too much hassle. I suppose ditching the car also gives the police another point of enquiry, even if, as we know, this killer didn't seem too bothered about that.

From the house in Soshigaya Park, there were multiple stations the killer could've gone for. The nearest one is probably about 15 minutes or so walking. I agree that the time spent in the house could well be him waiting for public transport to re-open. Then again, if public transport was a concern, him starting the attack at 11pm wouldn't have given him a *great* deal of time to get back on to a train after it.

But even after 1:23am, the last definitive known time the killer was in the house, he still would have had to walk through a residential area and then likely a shopping district to reach the station. Let alone after 5am when the first trains started running. How could he have risked a single person noticing a man with an injured hand?

The other possibility is that he simply walked off into the dark, sticking to the back streets. He kept his hand in his pocket and his head down. He far could he have walked like that? Or maybe he didn't have to walk that far...
do they believe it was his non-dominant hand that was injured? easier to hide a non-dominant hand injury and to just manage what you need to do in daily life. also, I guess, he could have come up with a made up explanation- kitchen injury, caught in a door.... something. easier if he does not have a family he lives with who knows that he never does anything in the kitchen or was missing all night or whatever.
 
There was a case in the early 1970's where a little girl (I'm afraid I can't remember her name) went missing on the way to church and was later found murdered. Almost 50 years later it turned out the pastor of the church killed her. An obvious suspect who was never seriously looked into for one reason or another.

Were you thinking of Gretchen Harrington?
 
Were you thinking of Gretchen Harrington?

Yes, thank you so much for finding it!
 
I’m almost done reading through the 50+ pages of this thread, I’d really, really like everyone here to not make the same mistake I have. I’ll try and be concise, and won’t get heavy on details.

Years ago, I got heavily invested in a somewhat local murder from 1979 that absolutely tore at my heart. Unrealistically, I wanted to solve it, but my more realistic goal was to get it in front of the public’s eyes to stir up discussion and, hopefully, lead to tips. The entire process took a heavy emotional toll on me, but I was able to get the information I’d learned out via a podcast (not my own, some great people did me a huge solid.)

Anyway, onto my mistake. A direct family member or friend of the victim not wanting to talk isn’t suspicious. Them rejecting an offer for financial help to process evidence isn’t suspicious. Them not clearing up statements to the public that cast a shadow of suspicion on them is in itself not suspicious.
When I attempted to speak to friends related to the victim in the crime I mentioned, I could not grasp why they wouldn’t want to talk to me. Beyond the crime, I wanted to give the victim a voice and show who she was, and no one would talk about her. Why wouldn’t best friends want the world to know how great of a person she was? Why wouldn’t someone want to clear the air of any suspicion towards them?

The one friend who I did speak with a few times laid it out pretty well. Talking about it hurts. Thinking about it hurts. Even with an opportunity to lend a hand and potentially solve the crime, it’s just too painful.

And that’s really it. Could Yasuko’s sister open the house for DNA collection and have it be analyzed overseas, and potentially locate a suspect? Absolutely, and that would be fantastic. Is it at all weird that she won’t? No. Some family and friends need to accept what happened in order to deal with it. They don’t let their minds return, they don’t want to get their hopes up by the promise of help from others. Clearing up anything that the public, such as us, may think is suspicious about them will do nothing but drag them back into a place they never want to be again. I'm absolutely sure they want the crime solved, but I’m also sure they want to think about it as little as possible.
But she took a bunch of reporters through the house, if I recall.

I do find it strange, but that’s just MOO.
 
Thanks for your thoughts, Kitty. A lot to unpack here but doing my best:

*There were TWO black handkerchiefs, both of them black, and both mass-produced. From Muji, I think.

*No idea what religion the Miyazawa family followed. Mikio's mother I think is Buddhist but that's all I know.

*As for the Miyazawa surname, I have no idea how far back this goes but Japanese surnames essentially 'begin' in 1875 when the Meiji government passes a law requiring all Japanese to register one.

*As far as I know, nothing was taken from the home beyond money.

*I'm not sure what you mean by dojo--is this not a hall for the practice of martial arts?

*As you know, I'm absolutely certain the TMPD -given they say they have put over 280,000 personnel on this case- will have looked into any accusations or legal problems in the past of all those involved.

*I disagree that the mother's background is any more or less important than Mikio's -- nobody knows at this point.

*At this stage, what the killer saw himself as can unfortunately only speculated. Same goes for his motive. If any of his motives or actions had some kind of religious significance then the police have said nothing about that. Given it's been 22 years and they have made no arrests, I fail to see what they would gain from holding that back. Ergo, there is no religious or occult angle here unless we're missing something.

*That said, 100 days after the murders, a religious icon -a small jizo statute- was left near the house. Whether or not this is connected to the murders, nobody knows. Picture attached.

*Not sure what operating on a 'high spiritual level' would mean but we do know that he wasn't drunk or under the influence of drugs. That's according to the TMPD.

*The ice cream could well be connected to diabetes or some kind of medical condition. Then again, we know that murderers are known to feel hungry after their crimes. The killer also ate melon while in the house. As for the barley tea, it's *extremely* common in Japan and is often provided free of charge in restaurants and eateries in the way water is in many other countries.

*He did not leave his underwear or his trousers. Only the clothes on the upper half of his body. We can conclude, therefore, that his shoe size did not match Mikio's (the killer's was either a size 28.5 or 29)
big feet if he is really 5' 7"
 
There doesn't appear to be much new info and without speaking Japanese it's very hard to look into this case, beyond what's already out there in English. As such, there's not much else I can add at this point beyond speculation.

We all know the general theory of the killings, the perpetrator came in through the window, killed Rei first, then attacked Mikio etc. However I think the following theory is just as valid -

The killer is young and dressed like a skater to the point a non skater wouldn't notice the difference. He approaches the Miyazawa house, secluded in the middle of the park, and rings the doorbell. Mikio answers and the killer tells him a story in order to gain entry. Remember, he's very young, he's on his own, it's late at night and he's a skater looking kid in a skate park with your house being the closest to said park. None of this would scream danger. He could say he was lost, or his parents hadn't arrived to pick him up, he was Ill and needed a doctor, he was worried someone was following him etc. There are plenty of options. I see no reason why Mikio would not let him into the house in such a scenario. This also explains the reports by the grandmother next door that the Miyazawa doorbell sounded around 10:30pm. Once inside the house it's possible he stayed for a while before attacking (we will come back to this a bit later) it's also possible he attacked fairly soon after entry. Either way, Mikio heads for the stairs, perhaps to show the youth the phone to 'ring for help', perhaps he was just going to the toilet, perhaps he went to get something to drink for them both whilst they 'waited', it's hard to say. But in any event, the killer follows Mikio up the stairs and attacks him near the top. This explains the knife wounds on the thighs and buttocks and the fact the wounds were in an upward direction. If you were stood on the stairs behind someone the back of the thighs and the buttocks would be the main target area available to strike. The killer then proceeds to attack Yasuko and Niina. Perhaps they were asleep, perhaps Yasuko was woken by the person and witnessed/heard what had happened to Mikio. Again, it's impossible to say, but if you did know a killer was on the second floor landing and you were in the loft, there would be nowhere to run, perhaps pretending to be asleep was the only option. Either way, they are murdered. Once the killings have taken place he stays in order to stem the blood flow to his wound and clean himself up. You can't be wandering around covered in blood with a gaping wound, it's a bit obvious. So he stems the blood flow (using the frozen ice cream and sanitary pads) then changes his shirt and jacket, taking some clean ones from Mikio. It would also fit that he would want to clean his shoes. Ice white trainers that are dripping with blood is a bit of a giveaway and you don't want to leave a trail of evidence once you leave the house. This explains why there was no blood evidence of the killer leaving. The bathroom screen is cut, perhaps he is thinking of using this as an escape route, perhaps he just wants to make it look like a robbery gone wrong. Rifling through the draws but not taking anything, stealing money, but not all of it, would certainly fit with that. This brings us to Rei. Two possibilities in the above scenario. First - Rei sleeps through the attacks, the killer becomes aware he is in the house, but is perhaps unsure of what to do. The position of the bloodied footprints in the bedroom are at an angle where you would be stood looking at the bed from about the doorway. Does he leave Rei or does he kill him? Once cleaned up either Rei wakes or the killer decides not to leave anyone alive and strangles him. He chooses this method as he doesn't want to be covered in blood again just after cleaning and changing clothes from the first attacks. Second - this comes back to what I said before about being unsure how long the killer was inside before launching the attack. It's possible, but I think less likely than option one, that he was invited upstairs by Mikio and kills Rei first then turns to the others. As I say, I think the first scenario is more likely. The killer then leaves the property.

Now, obviously that is just pure speculation, theres a lot of 'perhaps' in that and I'm wary to try and avoid getting into CSI/murder mystery territory. I'm not saying this is what happened. It's just a scenario that could have. But it's an example of an alternative. I just wonder if some of the assumptions around the case are part of the reason it hasn't been solved.
It is Japan- if you were going into the house under a polite ruse (need to use the phone, need the toilet, etc.) wouldn't you take off your shoes before going upstairs?
 
Continue the discussion on Thread #2.

 
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