I have a few questions. On the scheme in the Japanese article I linked, Mikio is lying at the foot of the stairs leading from the first floor to the so-called “mezzanine”, a word I have met in several publications (a split-level second floor).
RSBM: Unfortunately, Batata is on a Time Out, so I'll do my best to answer in their place. (Perhaps they will use that time productively and get those answers from the TMPD?)
Does anyone see any possibility of:
- the killer attacking Mikio from the back, holding him with his L hand in a chokehold and inflicting knife wounds with his R hand? This position would be uncomfortable for the killer, he’d have to strike blindly, but it could explain both injuring himself (potentially, on both hands) and certain clumsiness of the blows. Also, it would require upper body strength which I think the killer had.
For me, no--I don't see this one. As I say, no choke-related injuries were ever mentioned to me. Moreover, we know Mikio was stabbed in the face and head from above. Given the killer was not that much taller than Mikio, the higher ground comes into play here. A differing account isn't required to explain the killer's injuries--the glancing blow on Mikio's skull (repeatedly) and the lack of a cross-guard and natural slippage combined with the great sharpness does that already.
2) I am still wondering if attacking the man of the house first might, logically make sense. Mikio did not appear strong, but one can never tell; some Japanese martial arts icons look deceivingly peaceful. For this very reason, starting with the father first could have been safer.
I have looked through different chokeholds. People tend to use their dominant arm, but it seems that the non-dominant one can be used, too. Lots of different chokeholds are used in martial arts.
The choking is not established so I don't opine. My family member in the police, who has attended various homicides, said that often times a male will stab by holding a victim in place with one hand, and then bringing the knife from up to down meaning the weaker hand can often get nicked in this motion. (Versus where a woman will often stab from down to up). At any rate, we know the killer was right-handed -almost certainly- and we know the primary injuries he sustains are there.
As for Mikio possibly knowing martial arts, I've never heard that. He was not a large man, did not weigh much, and would've been completely taken aback by the intrusion.
3) Rei was strangled from the back and Niina’s death was due to severed neck/brainstem.
What killed her was a stab to the cervical spine, yes. It's likely she rolled away from him in order to get away. But we also know that many of the blows she suffers are glancing ones from where the killer is stabbing Yasuko. So that seems to suggest he is stabbing the mother before the child which, again, would make sense given she would be more of a threat to him.
Could it happen if a much taller person was holding a child from the back, pulling her neck up? And then, the killer somehow “covered” them. I wonder if they all were lying face down because during the attacks the killer was afraid to look at them and striking blindly? Or was one of them placed differently?
Yasuko wasn't lying face down, nor was Mikio. We don't know if Rei was already laying face-down in his bed when the killer came in. I really don't think the killer had any issue looking at them, let alone being afraid to. Nothing in these actions suggests fear or emotion of any kind other than hatred / anger / dispassion for their existences.
4)
@FacelessPodcast and everyone else participating, there is something that i can not understand. In many places i have read that the Slazenger’s prints appear on the second floor.
They were throughout the house.
They write that the murderer initially changed to the slippers and then had to put on his Slaezengers going to the second floor because by that time, there was blood around.
Again, the slippers is not established by the TMPD. I assume this is from wikipedia? The killer never takes off his shoes. Why would he take off his relatively bulky sports shoes which afford him better protection from the blood and put on house slippers?
I am not even sure what “the second floor” is. (According to the scheme, there is the first floor, the mezzanine, the second floor and the attic.
If you go back to the start of this thread, you can see the video where An Irie takes journalists through. To simplify, there are basically three floors. I will do this UK-style:
Ground floor: garage, computer -- Mikio ends up here.
First floor: toilet, bathroom, kids room, kitchen, living room -- Yasuko, Niina, Rei all found here.
Attic: Yasuko, Niina initially stabbed here.
The mezzanine is simply a step area between the ground and first floor.
Maybe some mean, a split-level second floor). The explanation provided for the change of footwear is interesting. Like any Japanese, or exposed to Japanese customs man, the murderer first put on the slippers on entering, but then the floor was too bloody and he had to put on sneakers.
Where is the evidence this ever happened? I don't think that it did.
All of it is somewhat confusing because you’d expect a person to put on slippers at the entrance. Which, as I understand, is via the first floor, from the side, opposite to the park.
Normally this would happen at the genkan, right by the front door. Though there would likely be toilet slippers too.
But then we read that the suspected entry point was either the bathroom window, or the balcony, as @FacelessPidcast hypothesizes. Neither place should have slippers waiting for the killer. Did the murderer bring his own?
No. And as I say, what would be the point of using the slippers anyway. I recall you mentioning before that his DNA was found on the slippers suggesting a prior visit. This did not happen. The killer has never been established to have any kind of personal link with the family, let alone prior visits to their home.
I was thinking, maybe the bath was full of water for Mikio, and Mikio’s slippers were standing nearby? Then the killer could have used those slippers on entry for less noise, of course. He could have left own sneakers in the bathroom, then returned later to change them. It is not unreasonable if he killed Mikio on the second floor and pushed down. But according to the sketch from the CS that
@FacelessPodcast has provided, Mikio was wearing at least one slipper. I also believe his feet were smaller than the killers’ ones, and that in general, larger sleepers are kept for guests. These slippers make me question both entry and exit points.
Could he have stolen someone’s keys? But entering through the front door, uninvited, should have alerted Mikio.
Missing keys would have been noted. And I discount the possibility of the killer entering through the front door because the evidence and the sequence of these murders renders it all but impossible.
But thinking now on a serious note, could that logic have been applied if the killer's parents bought the shoes??