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MIYAZAWA FAMILY MURDERS—
CASE BREAKDOWN [Part 2 of 2]
THE KILLER
As you will have no doubt already noticed, one of the really strange aspects of this case is just how much we know about the killer. Pretty much everything except for a name. Here is an outline of what we have. The information that is still listed on the TMPD website to date:
*The killer was 170cm (around 5 ft 6ish—5 ft 7).
*He was slim (waist 70-75cm).
*He wore size L in clothing.
*He was ‘relatively young’ judging by his clothes. (These are their words, not mine).
*He was probably right-handed.
*He was between 18-35 years of age…
HOWEVER, in 2018, the TMPD updated his age range at the time of the murders, revising it downwards. This news article breaks it down. (Switch subtitles to auto-translate).
So, it now seems as if the killer was actually between 15 and 20 years of age. To my mind, the police have to have more than just his clothes seem to belong to a young man. There has to be something else here.
BLOOD EVIDENCE
We know that the killer was male. We know that he was BLOOD TYPE A. We also know that he left a fair amount of his blood at the scene and that he likely injured his right hand during the attack. The police do say it’s possible that this wound may have healed by now though.
Intriguingly, in 2005 the TMPD announced that the killer may have had a mixed-race background. According to them, it’s possible that his mother (or her parents) came from a country close to the Adriatic Sea. On the other hand, his father was East Asian. As I understand it, the DNA shares genetic markers found in 1 in 4 Koreans, 1 in 10 Chinese, and 1 in 13 Japanese. But there isn’t a great deal of clarity on this, at least on the part of the TMPD in English press releases. We do know that the TMPD asked their Korean counterparts for help with the case. I don’t have all the details here but from the sounds of it, this was something of a first due to the historical and geopolitical relationship between the two nations. I’ve read that the TMPD were refused but I’ve also read that later on, they cooperated together. As it’s 22 years on with no suspects, we can assume this didn’t lead to anything. At any rate, I think I’m right in saying that all South Korean citizens must get their fingerprints taken for the national ID card at the age of 18. But from conversations I’ve had with DNA experts, they’re not so sure how definitive anyone could be in 2005 about where exactly the killer’s parents were from based on the techniques used at the time. Don’t quote me on that, I’m not scientist – I just want to make it clear that it’s also quite possible the killer doesn’t conventionally look mixed-race to the average Joe walking down the streets of Setagaya.
FINGERPRINTS
As I say, the TMPD have the killer’s fingerprints. Foreigners entering Japan must submit their fingerprints to gain access to the country on a tourist visa/visa-waiver entry. Their photograph is also taken. However, this system was introduced in 2007, I believe.
DIET
As previously mentioned, the killer defecated in the toilet. The police analysed this and concluded he had eaten string beans and sesame seeds prior to the murders. I think I’m right in saying that this dish is considered comfort food in Japan. I’ve even read in certain places that the police thought him to be a “momma’s boy” based on this and other elements I’ll touch on later on. The possibility that the killer lived with his mother has certainly been considered by the police.
Also, note that of the food available in the house, he ate ice cream cups (without using a spoon, I think he squeezed it out of the cup). I’ve always wondered about that. If he’s hungry, why the ice cream? It almost seems infantile somehow, late-night dessert.
ODOUR
The killer wore Drakkar Noir aftershave which cost around $30USD a bottle at that time. It was popular and available throughout the country but that’s a detail that always stuck with me. The killer likes to smell good.
PERSONALITY
I won’t go into too much detail here as it is, for however many experts I’ve spoken to in profiling, psychology and so on, still just speculation. What’s clear is that he prepares for the murder by buying a knife before, quite possibly along with clothes, and maybe even watches the family ahead of the murders. He brings gloves along with him. That suggests the capacity, however rudimentary, for planning.
But then he never uses those gloves. He attacks Rei first, who is most likely the least threat of all the victims to him. He cuts himself in the first usage of the knife. He has to abort his attack on Yasuko and Niina half-way through as it’s no longer working properly. He spends a considerable amount of time in the house, maybe as long as 10 or more hours. He leaves behind 16,000 pieces of evidence. It’s almost as if he’s so unconcerned by this that he’s brazenly saying to the police: it doesn’t matter what you have on me. Not to assume he’s even thinking about the police or playing some kind of cinematic game with them. But defecating on items that belong to the family suggests, at the very least, that he wasn’t terrified by the events that had just taken place. So, on the other hand, a master assassin he is NOT. And a lot of strange decisions were made by him that seemed to negate some of his (apparent) planning. Yet, despite this, despite 280,000 TMPD personnel across 22 years, he just walks out of that house and vanishes? He’s either a teenage amateur murderer who leaves 16,000 pieces of evidence behind or he’s Jason Bourne? It seems to make no sense for him to be both. Anyway, this is just a speculative tangent from me. I will say that what we can know for sure is that the killer was someone, potentially at a young age, who ultimately felt comfortable enough (or wild enough) to enter a house with a single knife thinking he could control four human beings.
THE CLUES
CLOTHES
In terms of what the killer wore, you’ll see that there’s a lot of detail. Much of that is available in the image below. Many of the product runs are known to the TMPD so we can see when an item was available to the public. A couple of details stand out to me here. In the case of the Uniqlo jacket (size L), it only went on sale some 2-3 months before the murders. That would mean it’s unlikely the killer got it second-hand or that it was a hand-me-down from a sibling or some such. I will talk about skateboarders later but one of the theories you might see online explaining these murders is that the killer was in fact a skater and that his clothes back that up. Looking at them, I’m not wholly sure that’s necessarily true—particularly in terms of his footwear. But what I would say is that several items that he wore were for sale at a now-defunct clothing store called M/X. Interestingly, 5 of the 10 items on his person were available in the shopping district of Ogikubo which we know the Miyazawas must have frequented. Ogikubo is around 3.5 miles north of the Miyazawa residence.
KNIFE
The knife that the killer brought with him to the house, presumably in his hip bag, was sold under the name “Seki Magoroku, Ginju”. Only 1,500 units were ever produced (from Fukui Prefecture, around 4 hours away from Tokyo). They were manufactured in the summer of 2000, six months before the murders. It was a sashimi knife, intended for cutting fish. He made the purchase, it seems, the day before the murders.
While we’re on this topic, we know that the choice of knife was peculiar given that it broke during the attack on Mikio—the first time it was used. Seeing as we know he bought the knife new, why this choice? The knife cost around $30USD. Perhaps he had some kind of familiarity with these knives? More on this later.
There are conflicting reports on where he bought the knife itself. Some say a supermarket close to the house of the Miyazawas, while on Wikipedia it says Kanagawa Prefecture (but I’m unsure which source they’re using for that).
My Japanese-speaking source has told me the killer was picked up on camera in a supermarket (or near it) by Kichiōji Station’s northern exit (two stations away from Ogikubo) and this is where the murder weapon was purchased. In any case, it’s most probably the killer would have paid cash but I do wonder—a 15-20-year-old buying a $30 knife? That had to have been noticed, especially if it was the day before the murders. A 15-year-old kid with that kind of money to buy a knife surely would have stayed in a supermarket employee’s memory? Or maybe not, who knows. What I’m thinking here is the CCTV thing is odd. It sounds as if it was recovered from the supermarket. And yet… the TMPD have never said a word about it. Not in relation to the supermarket, or in general, as far as I know. I don’t know if security footage was recorded at subway stations / nearby convenience stores 22 years old but I’m assuming if they pulled it from the supermarket, they must have seen his face. Maybe the quality was so bad it told them nothing. But why have they never shared this? Could modern technology not help? What would be the harm in publishing this image now? It’s not as if the killer will be ‘tipped off’ that they’re looking for him. I have no idea…
SAND
One of the first clues that really made my mind start to race was that in the killer’s hip bag, traces of sand was found. Get this, from the Mojave Desert. But more specifically, sand around or near Edwards Air Force Base in California. I’ll expand a little on this below but I’m sure for anyone who’s already googled this, they will have probably wondered about an airman theory or some kind of military connection. I think there are 23 US military bases in Japan. Of that number, from the air force, one of the most prevalent is Yokota AB.
Google Maps
You can see the distance between the base and the Miyazawa’s home, roughly 30km or 18 miles. Having studied the route before, you can make the journey in about 40-60 minutes on public transport, 45 minutes or so driving, and I think under 2 hours by bicycle along the Tama River. The Sen River flows right next to their house which, I think, is a tributary of the aforementioned Tama.
As for the sand itself, I can’t go into too much detail right now but what I will say is: either the killer had been to Edwards Air Base at some point before December 2000. Or he somehow acquired a hip bag that had. I’ve seen some mentions online of flea markets at Yokota AB and this is, of course, possible. But we also know that the killer bought his knife and jacket brand new. The hip bag was, as you can see in the picture above, produced in Japan. So, it would probably mean a hip bag that has travelled from Japan, to Edwards, and then back again to Yokota AB to be purchased second-hand by our killer. Again, possible. But my feeling is that he’s been out of the country. If he’s done it once, he was likely able to do it again. I’ll go to this at the end of this breakdown, but after 280,000+ TMPD personnel across 22 years of tireless searching and a team of 40 full-time officers still on this case, either he’s Jason Bourne and he’s learned to live off the grid. Or he simply left the country. (Knowing he was leaving the country imminently might also explain why some of his actions seemed carefree or blasé in the house).
There was also, as I understand it, sand from the Miura Peninsula on his jacket or in his jacket. The area near Yokosuka City. (There is also a US Naval Base there).
SHOES
As I’ve said, he took his shoes with him. This is notable because he left everything else that he brought with him in the house except for *maybe* the pants he was wearing (I’ve never been able to corroborate this detail). We know what shoes he wore due to both his footsteps in the considerable blood pooling inside the house and possibly in the moss/mud in the gap between the house and the fence. Also, as you can see above, the shoes weren’t available in this size in Japan. But they WERE available in South Korea. The TMPD, however, have never given us any detail on where ELSE they were available. Slazenger are, after all, a British company. If the killer could purchase them ONLY in Seoul, then that seems like a much stronger connection than if they were also on sale in Sacramento or Southampton or Seville. For the record, they look like tennis or running shoes to me. Not skate shoes. Again, I can’t actually go into too much detail on the shoes due to various things that are ongoing but if anybody could help me pinpoint what model of shoe these were—product name or anything like that, this would be incredible.
HANDKERCHIEFS
The killer brought two black handkerchiefs with him. Take a look at this video.
犯人はハンカチをどのように使用したのか？ 警視庁
The police think that he wrapped the knife in such a fashion. Whether or not he did this to hide the blade, or to transport it safely, or simply to create a kind of hilt to protect his hand while attacking the family, we don’t know. The TMPD mention a fish factory in China because workers there use it the handkerchiefs in this way. Perhaps it suggests our killer has some familiarity with the kitchen, fishery, or even butchery. But I’m not sure that’s really a clue per se. One other detail worth mentioning; I’ve seen it said that the killer actually ironed these handkerchiefs which always struck me as particularly anal. Either that, or it fits with the momma’s boy theory. In any case, the handkerchiefs and, as I understand it, all of the clothes and other items were left neatly folded on the couch.
WITNESSES
There are a total of three possible sightings of the killer in the hours after the murders (though only one seems anywhere close to solid in my opinion). Firstly, a woman driving near the scene sometime after 11:30pm told police she saw a man rushing out of the Miyazawa’s house and jumped in front of her car. She didn’t hit him, though. Police found no blood in the street and, at any rate, we know the killer was still in the house at 1:18am. Other versions of this suggest she was actually driving at dawn and she got out to check on the man and saw blood on his left hand.
Secondly, a taxi driver claims that two or three men got into the back of his cab on the night of the murders and were silent passengers. He finished his shift after dropping them off and found blood on the backseat. Apparently, this blood was tested and turned out to be chocolate. As far as I can tell, this didn’t go anywhere.
Lastly, and perhaps most significantly. A man with a wounded hand or arm was spotted in
Tōbu-Nikkō Station (outside of Tokyo, around 2–3 hours north of Setagaya). He was patched up at the station but apparently the wound was so serious the bone was visible in his hand or arm. From what I’ve heard, this man was reluctant to seek medical attention at a hospital and station workers found it suspicious—they phoned the police. For whatever reason, I don’t think an officer was sent out immediately to intercept this man. Other versions of this sighting suggest it was at 5:25am and he himself actually went into the station seeking medical attention. Other versions say it was 5:26pm and the man was travelling on one of the trains. His bone were visible in this version too.
What I do know is that over 5 million people were fingerprinted and the TMPD checked through hundreds of thousands if not 1 million+ men with hand injuries in the Tokyo area.
Other than that, we have some vague mention of Yasuko complaining to her family that a man was parking “too close to the house” in the days before the murder.
THEORIES
There are a number of theories floating around. I will deal with them briefly here as most of them don’t deserve, at least in my opinion, more than cursory scrutiny.
1) The Corporate Espionage Plot
As mentioned previously, Mikio worked for Interbrand. One of the theories is that whatever he was working on got him killed. This is perhaps a case of someone hearing that the killer was going through the family documents and putting the movie together in their heads. As far as I can tell, even as early as the first week the media were dismissing the idea and quoting unnamed colleagues who made it clear that not only was Mikio not the kind to be disliked or have conflicts with anyone, he wasn’t working on anything sensitive. One would also imagine that, if this was some kind of corporate hit, a hitman who brings a sushi knife, uses the family toilet and eats their ice cream would make a lot of sense.
2) The Land Dispute
This rubs shoulders with the theory below but, essentially, this theory is that the family were killed because they wouldn’t move out of their home and the city was keen to regenerate the area. There are variations on this involving the Yakuza. However, as mentioned previously, the Miyazawa family had already agreed to move so this sort of takes all the oxygen out of that one. And, even if they hadn’t, killing them had the opposite effect because the house has stood empty for 20 years.
3) The Korean Hitman
There is a ‘journalist’ named Fumiya Ichihashi who wrote a book suggesting that not only does he know why the Miyazawa family were killed but he knows who did it. A man called ‘R’ who was part of the Korean Air Force and who was paid to kill the family due to some kind of involvement with the Unification Church. The story goes that since they didn’t want to sell up to the church, the church paid R to kill them. Ichihashi not only says that he worked out the identity of the killer but he had a meeting with him in his car and even manged to lift his prints. The reason I used quotation marks on the word journalist above is because Ichihashi is a nom de plume, we don’t know his real name. He does assure he’s a journalist though. But then as they say in Italy, if my grandmother had wheels, she’d be a bicycle.
4) The Wandering Lunatic
Anything is possible. But we know he came with a knife which he bought prior to the murder. This, at least, suggests some kind of plan. So, if he is completely unhinged, he’s still able to reason on some level. He also escaped and displayed self-preservation in wanting to patch himself up.
5) Yasuko’s Student
There isn’t a great deal of detail here. Something about a bitter former student of Yasuko’s tutoring. Even a vague mention of impropriety with Niina. I can’t talk to any of that. But what I would say is that 15-20 years old would jive with it being a student of some kind. Especially as there were markings of a highlighter pen in the hip bag.
6) Angry Skater
Apparently, there was some conflict between Mikio and the skaters. However, having been to the skate park and the Miyazawa’s house myself, it’s actually quite difficult to imagine the kind of noise that would be required to cross the distance from the former to the later. Admittedly, this was during the day, maybe in the dead of night it might be a different matter. But what I will say is that I know for a fact that the TMPD took the skater theory very seriously. Whether this is based on the clothes the killer wore or simply the proximity of the skate park and them assuming 2+2=4, I don’t know. Of course, in this world anything is possible. And I can’t actually expand too much on the detail. But having been in touch with someone who used to be involved in that circle (that was ruled out of the investigation before anyone asks), from what he said, it’s very unlikely one of these skaters would have taken such offence at being asked by a family man to keep the noise down that they’d come back at a later date to destroy him and his entire family. But again, anything is possible.
So, 22 years and 16,000 clues later, what are we left with? In some ways we have so much information about the identity of the killer. But after more than a decade going over this maze, it feels like the more I know, the less I know. I truly have no idea. Every time I get close to feeling any kind of certainty, I’ll discover new things that will shut the door on that.
If I had to bet my bottom dollar on what happened, I would say that we’re looking at the killer being the child or relative of an active US airman stationed at Yokota. And the reason the killer was able to elude the TMPD for all these years is simply because 1) Yokota AB is sovereign US territory. It’s like a small American city. He could’ve hidden there… 2) or, he simply flew back to America.
It's likely that even if he was American, he had a grasp of Japanese as he was looking at documents belonging to the family and had enough reading / writing skill to log on to the family computer and create a new folder. Takeshi Tsuchida, the first lead detective on the case has also said that he thinks it’s a killer with international links (beyond whatever the DNA points to). While I’m on that, there’s a very good article here worth reading via ABC:
The faceless killer who slaughtered an entire family and then vanished for two decades
To conclude, the sand tells us he was someone who moves. The clothes and the knife tell us he was someone with access to money. And his disappearance tells us he was someone who knew he could rely on a new beginning. All of that seems like a lot for a teenager, before you even start factoring in someone so young murdering two adults and two children.
What we know is that the TMPD still refer to this as a robbery homicide which means we can’t fully discount the possibility that robbery was the motive for these murders. It doesn’t really explain why a person would murder two adults and two children for money if he then leaves behind two-thirds of the cash and all the valuables in the house. I suppose what I’m saying is, that while it’s technically true that this is a robbery/homicide case, if I cross the road to shoot a guy in the face, my motive is murder. The jaywalking that occurred to get me there was just one part of the whole. That’s just my opinion, anyway.
To finish this, if he was 15 at the time of the murders, the killer would only be 37 years old now. But more importantly, Niina would be 30 years old. Rei would be 28. Perhaps Mikio and Yasuko would be grandparents. Haruko and Setsuko wouldn’t have to wonder if they have enough time left on this earth to ever be able to ask the killer why he took their grandkids. The house the Miyazawa family lived in still stands today. A TMPD officer guards it 24/7, a silent vigil of sorts. Though the house is empty, it’s a testament to the horror that unfolded that night. For how much longer the house will stand, we don’t know—it faces the threat of demolition by the local authority. But I hope against hope that if that does happen, it will be after the relatives have finally been given answers. I hope against hope that, wherever he is, the man that committed this atrocity is found soon and that he lives in fear until that day. And, finally, I hope against hope that the Miyazawa family is resting in peace.
