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

[BatataPoha]

As an aside: I think about Yasuko a lot. Was she frozen in fear upstairs while listening to the attack on Mikio? Or was she fast asleep with Niina? Even if there was no screaming, we all agree that the noise of the grappling between two men and then one of them falling down the stairs would have been loud enough to be heard through the walls by the neighbours much less someone right above. And if she was asleep and was caught totally off guard by the attack on her, then the Iries not hearing anything in the dead of sleep would make sense too, would it not? If she was awake, then she'd have also been listening as the killer came up the steps for her and Niina. There would have been nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. Absolutely bone-chilling to think about.

Hey penelopeb. Thos has been a major point of contention for me. A rather slim young man (albeit with a knife) overpowering a family of 4 in an apparently silent manner. I refuse to believe it was all due to chance and luck.
My theories on this -

1) The killer threated Yasuko with the killing of Rei if she made any noice. Yasuko wouldn’t know that Rei had already died. Even if we assume she made it down the stairs fully conscious and in hold of her senses, she would just see Mikio’s dead body on the ground floor and maybe presume the killer came through the front door. Which again fits the theory on why Rei was killed silently.

2) The second one is based off a similar theory except that Yasuko willingly kept quiet in order to not wake up Rei (who she didn’t know was dead at that time) in hopes that the killer would probably miss Rei or ignore him.

I dunno how feasible this is in that small house, but that could be one of the reasonings.

As far as the previous break ins are concerned, I think that could also be the case. Maybe the Anns also heard certain thuds in the house when the Miyazawas were all out and assumed it was some animal or bird or something when in fact it was our killer practicing those break ins, Which is why when it happened that night, they again ignored it. JMO ofcourse.

I refuse to believe that a man of such slender stature could over power a family of 4 in relative silence without a certain degree of planning and acclimatization.

Good point! But you wonder how a teenager could have such exposure to dead bodies and blood and gore. It absolutely didn't phase him at all

if he not from the usual professions that involve blood, then could it possibly be gaming? Now I am not a gamer, and I am not blaming games for this but maybe playing a certain brand of games that involves this type of thing. Maybe it includes killing off NPCs in a gory manner. I dunno if these kinda games existed back then so not sure how likely this is.

It would also fit in with timing - Holiday season, generally you can expect to get new games and why the killer wanted to use a computer. Ofcourse we dunno why he wanted to use it, but maybe it could have been some sorta gaming.

 

[Auntie Cipation]

I missed the part of the story here where the documents that were thrown in the bathtub had been “torn up”. Considering that there doesn’t seem to be anything pointing to a different motive for this, I’m beginning to think it might have simply been part of his destruction of the family. He destroyed the individuals, one by one, then went on to destroy the rest of their lives. Pulling out and overturning drawers, tearing documents and destroying them with water, throwing then in the toilet (and maybe defecating on them) is a violent sort of destruction, much like slaughtering a family.

Or maybe this: Can you imagine the adrenaline that most be flowing during such a prolonged, vicious attack? Killing four people, one after another, three of them in a particularly vicious manner? The rage that must have fueled it? Does that suddenly stop after the fourth kill?

Perhaps the drawer-pulling and papers-destruction were simply the “over-run” of rage and adrenaline. After the murders he’s physically starting to weaken, maybe the rage and adrenaline ebbing starting to ebb, but some, of course, must remain. It simply doesn’t turn off like a spigot.

I don’t know. Does that fit?

Is it feasible that perhaps the mess of pulled-out drawers and torn up documents was a childish attempt to make the scene look like the house had been burgled?

Like maybe the perp had a media-created mental image of how a burglar rifles through a house, but without the understanding that a burglar would actually be seeking things of value and then take them?

Also, can someone remind me what was on the upper level of the drop-down ladder? I seem to recall it was a sleeping area? If that's the case, then the ladder would have been opened and shut on a daily basis, meaning whatever sound it made would have been very familiar to the family next door. I wonder if they knew they heard it only because it was such a familiar sound to them.

Anyway, just a few thoughts. MOO

 

[Knitty]

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