Japan - Miyazawa family of 4 murdered, Setagaya, Tokyo, 30 Dec 2000 #3

[FlowersInBloom]

There’s something puzzling about the fanny pack and the car. If the killer arrived by car, why would he need a fanny bag? One possible explanation, though purely speculative, is that he intended to use the bag to carry something, like heaps of cash, and anticipated needing to climb. This suggests planning of the invasion. It could also imply that he didn’t use a car but arrived on foot or by bike, as a fanny bag would be more practical for hands free movement and would be easier to carry on the back rather than the front.

He carried the knife in it no? The bag was big enough to carry the sashimi knife safely while he either climbed in the window or over the balcony. It wouldn’t look great walking around holding a large knife.

 

[BatataPoha]

Does anyone have an idea what gas / petrol prices were in Japan back in the early 2000s?

 

[BatataPoha]

Right, I believe the nap was speculated upon from previous posts and in dramatisations of the whole event but never confirmed…

Perhaps he just didn’t care and went into the whole thing expecting to be caught anyway? So what the hell, who cares what he leaves behind because he’s for sure going to be caught. I wonder if he maybe had this attitude… and just got extremely, extremely lucky…

I’ve read posts from @Incoherent and now you about it being unlikely he used public transport due to the CCTV and the first trains not starting until around 5am, plus the very noticeable sweater he was speculated to have stolen and worn and the injuries to his hands. He’d stand out to someone surely…

So here I think… if he possibly wasn’t local due to his dumping of clothing and bag for the need to travel and look cleaner, and he didn’t use public transport due to the above, then how did he get home… using a bicycle with injured hands? It would only take him so far… Tokyo is huge. So maybe then a car? Did he drive back home or to the base in a car, or get picked in one…?

JMO for the random Japanese theory.

I think its both.

The Killer was a tourist who came to Tokyo by a car, was living in a motel nearby and was on foot when he first scouted the Miyazawas.

He came back the next day to kill them, hoping for an easy kill. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out that way and he got injured. So he took enough gas money , returned on foot to his hotel, and then went away to his real home some distance away.

Why he left behind his hip bag is also simple. He couldn’t risk someone linking the hip bag to his motel and to his excursion the previous night. Both on the previous night and the night of the murders, the hip bag would have been exposed on his way back home from the Miyazawas, and someone could have maybe noticed that pattern. He didn’t wanna risk that and so he left it behind.

He took the gas money, went back to the motel, did a early checkout, filled his car up and then went off.

 

[TokyoSleuth]

How I wish I did, but I don’t! If anyone here that lives in Japan could chime in that would be very interesting. But from the pictures I’ve seen of that sweater, it is not exactly hard to spot in a crowd if he did indeed wear it.
And if he didn’t, what did he wear I wonder?

I can't speak to coverage but here is a still from CCTV in late 2000 showing suspects of a COMPLETELY SEPERATE CASE murder in Ibaraki, at a convenience store before the crime. Poor quality but enough to make out clothing and features.

Wanted to caps that in case people think I'm posting suspects in this case.

This is actually the case I mentioned before. Police withheld the images for almost 18 years before the public knew they existed as the men were believed to be minors.