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

[Eliver]

His DNA was found in the slippers, though? Although I can't exclude that he left it during the prior visit.

In the slippers?
I don't know. This is the first time I hear of this.

 

[Charlot123]

About the balcony. Someone asked how there were no traces left on top of the car if he used it to stand on it and get to the balcony.

I wonder, the tape we have been discussing many times. The tape can be used for the skateboard, but it can also be put on top of the car hood or any horizontal surface the man used as the "support" to get to the balcony.

That tape is essentially a paper with a strong friction force. It is used for skateboards but can be used to scale surfaces, too. What if the intention was to use it to climb on the balcony? It is another question whether he put it back afterwards (then some of the sand in the tummy bag, as there were several found, not only the Mojave one, but Miuri coast as well, could be from the sneakers on the paper). Or maybe, he later threw out the used tape in the house, or burned, or shred and dumped into the bathroom paper mess.

Ironically, the information from that "Vsevolod Ibragimov" or whoever the dude is, I shall call him VI for brevity, mentioned his suspect being onto "climbing the mountains." I don't know about it, but I immediately thought about rock climbing gyms. They are very popular where I live, probably were popular in Japan.

@FacelessPodcast, do you know if there are any rocks to climb in Mojave desert? I am horrified of that place although there is an interesting Chinese park nearby that I want to visit.

 

[Charlot123]

In the slippers?
I don't know. This is the first time I hear of this.

They constantly change it in Wikipedias. Once it was in Japanese one, I don’t know if it stayed. But, this fact is practically an open secret, all forums discuss it. In fact, it raises the biggest question in terms of, did he enter as a guest and then started killing and when it got slippery, he came back and put on own sneakers? Or did he use the slippers the day before?

 

[Incoherent]

They constantly change it in Wikipedias. Once it was in Japanese one, I don’t know if it stayed. But, this fact is practically an open secret, all forums discuss it. In fact, it raises the biggest question in terms of, did he enter as a guest and then started killing and when it got slippery, he came back and put on own sneakers? Or did he use the slippers the day before?

Which slippers are you suggesting here? A pair of spare house slippers? The only mention of slippers were Mikio’s on the staircase. Do you mean Mikio offered the killer his own slippers to wear in the house? Or do you mean the guest slippers in the genkan were all tested for DNA? Could you kindly provide a source for this?

 

[FacelessPodcast]

@FacelessPodcast,

About the petition:

- Vsevolod Ibragimov is not the real name, of course, but whoever prompted it has a relative that speaks Russian

They changed their name. It was different before. I think the person is a kid.

- The person who wrote the petition definitely masters better English but intentionally made it sound as if written by a non-native.
- The timing is interesting. To be honest, in Russian-speaking communities this case has not been of much interest. Whoever could, had already made own youtube videos. There is not much new to report.
- Cases like this attract freaks, but "the lady doth protest too much". The petition is made to sound grotesquely looney.
- The goal is not to draw attention to some mysterious 54-year-old Korean-Canadian-American working in IT. Although I would not be surprised to find out that someone's relative indeed, continues to travel to Japan, for whatever reason.

I have two opposing theories:
the reneved interest to the case has made someone anxious. Perhaps your poi is pretty realistic, so here comes a petition that, in a lump of nonsense, hints at your idea being along the same looney tunes, so to say.

If this is so, then timewise, posting links to Yokota school yearbooks has ignited something.

The opposite theory: anything to revive the interest to the case because it is a dead end street.

My opinion: the answer to the case will be via the DNA. Maybe the next petition to TMPD should be about it/s

I agree with you that DNA would blow this case wide open, ignoring the problem that there is no real DNA database in Japan before the criminal one that the killer is already absent from. That leaves with international databases. That could certainly prove fruitful. It seems as if change is coming on this from, even if it takes a very long time.

As for the post above, there is so much wrong with it, I don't even know where to begin.

 

[FacelessPodcast]

Forgive me, I'm always late to interesting cases and trying to catch up. This is an overwhelming one, lot of pages! I've been reading to try to not repeat thoughts, discussions, etc.

I'm in a rush today but a few questions and thoughts I have (again sorry if already discussed a million times, I have tried to keep track!):

No apologies necessary, @Lalalacasbah. The thread is so big, nobody can keep track of these things anyway. Welcome! And thanks for your ideas.

1. Was that chemical agent ruled out not to be connected to graffiti paint or stage set/design? I know traces in the garage but the theatre connection gets me a bit...

In all likelihood it was merely highlighter pen. Of the many investigative avenues, this one seems among the least promising according to all the conversations I've had.

2. Sounds like a car is the consensus to leave crime scene. Sounds like a skateboard wouldn't be used because the distance theorized?

I don't know about consensus. I do, however, think he used a car. And it hasn't been discounted. It would also solve a lot of the issues around his escape.

3. I can't shake the skateboarder/car park confrontation either as a possible trigger as mentioned upthread recently by @SteveL ... My father worked in a maximum security prison interviewing violent and dangerous offenders (Canada) and mentioned many murders are committed because something as little as a 'put down'. Comment made, attacker stews on it for hours, days, weeks and even months then goes back to commenter and commits murder.

I've posted extensively on the skater thing. In short, the TMPD have gone after skaters for 24 years. Fingerprinted scores of them. I've spoken to some of these guys who used to skate at the park. One even had memories of Mikio coming out, asking them to keep the noise down (politely, and they all did as asked). They were all eliminated from the case. I don't say it's impossible that a slight could've been the trigger for these murders. Only that there is practically zero in this case that links the murders to skaters.

4. This almost seems like incel before there was incel in a way. The females were brutalized more - even after death. I wonder if attacker was acquainted with the mother in some form (in passing, teaching, at a store, a put down or whatever) and she was the ultimate target and rest collateral damage (awful thing to say). I wondered about the 2chan/4chan connection if there was any type of 'incel' type discussions happening way back then. Oddly, this has case gives me Idaho 4 vibes in a way too.

I disagree on the violence. Not that it's not a possibility -- it is -- just that we could argue it either way. We don't know the driver for the difference in murders. It could be hatred. It also could be that, as he killed Rei first, he wanted to stay as quiet as possible, and with Mikio, he then needed to remove the threat. Maybe the violence visited on Niina and Yasuko was driven by a pathologic hatred or rage towards women. Or maybe it was simply that now he felt free to 'let go' as it were. Or maybe what angered him was that his plan was imperfect, he had hurt himself and bled everywhere -- for all he knew in that moment, he was going to be caught, tried and hanged. No way he could've known he would be free all these years later. To be clear, what I'm disagreeing with isn't the possibility of an incel before incels had this term. Only that, if it were his motive re: Yasuko or Niina, I think the TMPD would've uncovered that by now. And if we're going by his actions in the house, that could be argued in a number of different ways.

As for 2Chan, you'll see throughout this thread that I've said multiple times, it's garbage. It was just a kid ****posting. He was found and eliminated from the investigation.

5. Has it been totally ruled out the killer wasn't let in through the front door? If there was any brief acquaintance in passing at all (theatre, friend of Mom' student, kid from the skate park/park) maybe he was let in even accidentally or if feeling disarmed if attacker sounded like he needed help.

It's not been totally ruled but, as per my recent posts, there's so much wrong / illogical in the premise, that I think it's comfortably the least likely.

IIRC the etiquette and culture is different in Japan and most folks don't knock on other's door but I can't remember what I read on that here. If I get a knock at our door that time of night, I would look who and ask and decide to open it. Someone could've came to the door acting as a good samaritan - telling the Father 'hey your car door is open' or something. ETA: I realize this thought is moot. Rei was killed first so the timing and order of events wouldn't make sense being let in I don't think

I think the idea that a known person would come for a late night visit and Mikio would let him upstairs where his family was asleep is highly unlikely. Also, remember that the killer took off a handkerchief that was pinched in the front which the TMPD say is from his nose -- put another, he was masking his face. It's technically possible he might've taken it off at the door to smile for the peephole and just had it in his hand or pocket. But I find that unlikely given the sequence of murders / his actions. This is a man that didn't want his face to be seen.

 

[FacelessPodcast]

In the slippers?
I don't know. This is the first time I hear of this.

I've posted this a hundred times; there is ZERO evidence of the slippers. I don't care what wikipedia says (without solid links by the way, they're mostly dead or just mentions of a newspaper and the month of publication). I can tell you categorically that there is no evidence the killer knew the family or had been in their house prior to the murders. So, unless LE was lying to my face for no real reason, we are free to believe the official line of investigation, or a wikipedia page entry -- after hitting the translate button, no less.

 

[Charlot123]

Which slippers are you suggesting here? A pair of spare house slippers? The only mention of slippers were Mikio’s on the staircase. Do you mean Mikio offered the killer his own slippers to wear in the house? Or do you mean the guest slippers in the genkan were all tested for DNA? Could you kindly provide a source for this?

Esteemed @Incoherent

Where I am now, it is easier to look for sources in Chinese

世田谷一家殺害事件 - 維基百科，自由的百科全書

zh.m.wikipedia.org

“Blood-stained shoe prints were found on the stairs leading from the first floor to the mezzanine. However, the shoe prints started from the middle of the stairs and went toward the upper floor. Therefore, the police suspected that the murderer might have taken off his shoes at the entrance, but after the murder, Because the floor was covered with blood, I had no choice but to put on my shoes again when heading to the second floor [ Note 2 ] .”

About the DNA in the slippers, I shall look up separately- as I have said, there are tons of sources online.