JAPAN - Tiphaine Veron, 36, French tourist missing in Nikko, 29 Jul 2018

[cybervampira]

French woman missing in eastern Japan

Tiphaine Veron, 36, was last seen on the morning of July 29 when she left her lodging house in the city of Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture, according to the police.

Her suitcase was left at the inn where she was staying, and the manager called police the following day after she failed to return.

A cousin of hers has posted photographs and a message on Twitter describing Tiphaine as having light brown hair and green eyes. It has been translated into Japanese and retweeted nearly 1,000 times.



French woman staying in Nikko missing since late July | The Japan Times

https://www.ouest-france.fr/monde/j...-portee-disparue-depuis-le-29-juillet-5911419

Japon : la disparition d'une Française en vacances inquiète sa famille

 

[dotr]

French woman goes missing in Nikko | TokyoReporter
"Traveling alone, Veron departed the lodge after breakfast at around 10:00 a.m. on July 29. According to the male manager of the lodge, she was carrying a shoulder bag. He did not see her again, police said.

At around 11:00 a.m. the following morning, the manager alerted police. A search of her room revealed her passport and luggage. Her mobile telephone is not turned on, police said."

 

[cybervampira]

Japanese police deploy 80 officers in search for French woman missing in Nikko | The Japan Times

About 80 personnel were deployed in efforts to find Tiphaine Veron, 36, who was last seen at the popular tourist destination on the morning of July 29, when she left her lodging facility there.

The police said they received a report from a male tourist saying he crossed paths with a foreign woman who was dressed in casual style and walking alone on a mountain trail between Mount Nakimushi and the Kanmangafuchi Abyss on the afternoon of July 29.

The search, which involves helicopters, police dogs and drones, is being conducted in the area near Kanmangafuchi, which is known as a scenic spot. Local volunteers also joined the search.

 

[cybervampira]

Police resume search for missing French woman in eastern Japan | The Japan Times

Local police Tuesday resumed their search for a French female tourist who went missing in Nikko, Toshigi Prefecture, late last month.

Around 20 personnel, including some in wet suits, searched for Tiphaine Veron, 36, along the Daiya River near a lodging house where she stayed during a trip to the popular tourist city.

 

[ilovematt]

I’m making a cross country road trip tomorrow up to Canada alone with my dog. I feel so brave and independent. I cannot even imagine traveling alone in Japan. I hope it’s a misunderstanding and she’s out doing something increadible.

 

[ilovematt]

If I’m honest, I usually just get the latest news thanks to all of your stealthy sleuthing skills. Does anyone know if there are any updates on Tiphaine? I think I found something in french news but I guess my web translation skills are sub-par as well.. I can’t decipher if it’s just a repeat or not..

 

[FrostOwl]

Here's an article in French with an interview with Tiphaine's sister who has been in Japan with their brother and mother looking for her, and also an interview with a former police officer. He is beginning to think that her missing could be a crime, even if Japan is considered to be a safe country.
http://m.leparisien.fr/amp/faits-di...-abandonner-a-son-sort-23-08-2018-7861932.php

 

[Darling136]

FB page for Tiphaine missing

Unis pour Tiphaine Véron

 

[squareandrabbet]

Here's an article in French with an interview with Tiphaine's sister who has been in Japan with their brother and mother looking for her, and also an interview with a former police officer. He is beginning to think that her missing could be a crime, even if Japan is considered to be a safe country.
http://m.leparisien.fr/amp/faits-di...-abandonner-a-son-sort-23-08-2018-7861932.php

Yes, all this was pretty specific:

On the edge of the small and deserted Takino Shrine, one of the little-known places that Tiphaine planned to visit on Sunday 29 (according to the plan she had established and which was found in her personal effects at the hotel), are panels in Japanese: "be careful, there is someone here who is approaching women" and another reporting "frequent" incidents.

"This kind of warning is still an intriguing coincidence. This is extremely rare in Japan," insists Taihei Ogawa, who believes that the abduction hypothesis must be seriously studied.

 

[lindamichelle1]

French man desperate to find clues on missing sister in Japan

The brother of a French woman who went missing in 2018 from Nikko, a popular tourist destination north of Tokyo, is back in Japan for the first time in about three years and desperately searching for any clues about her.

english.kyodonews.net

French man desperate to find clues on missing sister in Japan
Nov 29, 2022​

 

[dotr]

Missing French woman's brother in Japan to continue search for sister

The Tochigi Prefectural Police continue investigating the case as a potential criminal incident and an accident.

www.japantimes.co.jp

 

[ZaZara]

Cold case : la disparition de Tiphaine Véron

Cold case: the disappearance of Tiphaine Véron
All summer long, RTL looks at the major unsolved criminal cases handled by the cold case unit in Nanterre. Today, the disappearance of Tiphaine Véron in Japan on 29 July 2018.

It is 29 July 2018 and Tiphaine Véron has just arrived in Nikko, Japan. This city of 80,000 inhabitants located 150 km north of Tokyo is a mecca of Japanese culture. Every year, hundreds of thousands of tourists come to admire its shrines, temples and sacred red-lacquered wooden bridge. So it was in Nikko that the 36-year-old school assistant, who has a degree in art history, decided to begin her trip to Japan.

"As soon as she arrived in Nikko, she sent us photos and videos. She was so happy to be there," Damien Véron, Tiphaine's brother, recalls. "From 29 July, we had no news, and on 1ᵉʳ August, the embassy called to tell me that she had disappeared and that I should let my parents know." That same evening, the embassy informed him that Tiphaine was not in any hospital in the region. Damien, his sister Sibylle and his younger brother Stanislas flew to Japan.

"Straight away, the police took us near a tourist site that Tiphaine wanted to visit, they showed us a scarf, and told us that my sister had fallen into the river and that the scarf was hers," Damien Véron explains. "We were told it was an accident, that there would be no search and that we could go home", he continues. But the family remained on the spot, conducting their own investigation, proving that the scarf was not Tiphaine's, and demonstrating that no typhoon had passed through Nikko during that period, so there was no risk of flash flooding.

The Vérons' determination rubbed the Japanese police the wrong way, and the investigators suggested to Damien that they should treat Tiphaine's hotel room with Luminol, a product that reveals traces of blood or other organic matter that may have been washed away. "I'm in the room, in the dark, and they shine a blue light and at that moment you see splashes on the wall. It's terrible, we're wondering what's going on, and to date we haven't had the splashes analysed", Tiphaine's brother explains.

In France, an investigation was opened in September 2018 by the Poitiers public prosecutor's office, for kidnapping and unlawful detention. However, for almost 4 years, French justice and Japanese investigators hardly collaborated or not at all. According to Corinne Herrmann, a cold case specialist and the Véron family's lawyer, "There are difficulties in exchanging information between our two countries, and investigative techniques are not the same."
"We were in a wait-and-see situation, and that's what you shouldn't do in a missing persons case," she continues. "We were able to work from France on a number of issues that were not investigated". Despite everything, the case ran cold and at the end of the summer of 2022, the examining magistrate in Poitiers was preparing to dismiss the case.

Fortunately for the family, just before the case was closed in France, Me Herrmann succeeded in getting the investigation transferred to the cold case division in Nanterre at the very beginning of 2023. This news sounds like new hope for Damien and his family. "There are a lot of things that haven't been done since France. The tourists who were in Tiphaine's hotel are not just Japanese. There's also the blood on the walls and all the suspects who haven't been identified. When you look at the evidence, it's very possible that Tiphaine was attacked in her hotel room", Damien Véron explains.

Judge Sabine Kheris, known for her work on serial killer Michel Fourniret, is now in charge of Tiphaine's disappearance. According to Tiphaine's brother, "we can imagine that, thanks to her experience, she will be able to pull the strings in Japan to get a criminal investigation opened, because that's not the case today".

While waiting for a hypothetical trip to Japan, Damien Véron has set up an association. This organisation aims to support the families of other French people who have disappeared abroad, relatives who, like him, are faced with a double problem: the cost of travel and a lack of understanding of the legal system in another country.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

【独自】国連委員会が日本政府に捜査要請　“事件性疑われる行方不明事件”と指摘　フランス人女性が2018年行方不明に　栃木・日光市｜FNNプライムオンライン


FNN has recently learned that the UN has requested the Japanese Government to investigate the sudden disappearance of a French woman who was sightseeing in Nikko, Tochigi, five years ago, with a view to identifying the perpetrators.

This is the first time that the UN has made a request to the Japanese Government under the Convention on Enforced Disappearances.

The issue concerns Tiffenu Bellon, 40, who suddenly disappeared in July 2018 while sightseeing in Nikko, Tochigi.

The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, which specialises in abduction cases, noted that Ms Belon may have been involved in the incident and that it was a "missing person case of doubtful incident".

It then newly requested the Japanese Government to conduct an investigation to identify the perpetrators and to provide information on the investigation to the family and the French authorities.

Damian, Belon's brother, said: 'This is not an accident. Our family is sad because we don't know where she is. She might be waiting for us somewhere."

In response, in April 2023, the Japanese Government stated that they were "continuing to search" but that there was "no evidence that she was involved in an incident".

Ms Belon's family complained that there was no reason for her sudden disappearance and that she may have been involved in the incident, as her mobile phone location data was suddenly disconnected from the area around the hotel where she was staying.


BBM


Véron apparently becomes Bellon in Japanese.

 

[ZaZara]

On April 8, Unis pour Tiphaine Véron published a Q & A on their FB page.

A few interesting snippets:

"I lived in Tokyo for a year and apart from some reprehensible behaviour in the underground, I find Japan to be a very safe country. Aren't you exaggerating when you talk about rampant crime?"

When we talk about Japan, we talk about what we know best about the country, which is the legal system.
Japan's exceptional sense of civic-mindedness leads us to forget its complexity. Japan has a clearance rate of almost 100% for open criminal investigations.
Why this rate?
A criminal investigation is only opened when the murderer is arrested!
On the other hand, the discovery of dismembered bodies, flagrant evidence of a crime or forced and voluntary disappearances = zero investigation.

"How can such a modern country have such a dysfunctional police force?"

The way the judiciary and the police work is different from ours. In France the judicial police work under the direction of the examining magistrate and the notion of presumption of innocence makes it easier to take people into custody and confront witnesses.
In Japan, there is no examining magistrate, no police custody and no requisitions, so investigations are impossible. Arrests can only be made in flagrante delicto.

"Why aren't the Tokyo police doing anything?"

Tiphaine has disappeared in Tochigi prefecture.
In Japan you have 47 prefectures.
Since the Second World War, the prefectures have acquired judicial and police autonomy.
Like the USA, which has the FBI, Japan has a national police force.
However, it can only intervene if the prefecture so requests, and this request has been made to the Tochigi prefecture for over 4 years, but they refuse.

"The Japanese have not responded to the international letters rogatory sent by France, how can the UN force Japan to collaborate?"

To explain quickly, action is being taken by the Committee on the Missing, which comes under the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
When Damien travelled to Geneva in October 2022, he discovered the existence of this Committee but also the possibility of "an emergency action request".
To submit this request, you need to fill in a thick file and meet the precise criteria set out in the Convention. For example, there must be legal proceedings between the countries concerned.
A working group examines your file and decides whether or not to launch proceedings.
The fact that our request has been taken into account is a great victory, because it means that the failings in the investigation have been pointed out. We await the Japanese response.

"How can you force Japan to cooperate?"

That's been the big problem from the start!
The Nikko police never replied to the French police through the Interpol channel, and the letters rogatory sent by the French judge came back incomplete.
This is exactly why we need a collective effort from the political players.
The UN's request to open a criminal investigation could facilitate the actions of Judge Khéris when she goes to Japan.
If the UN fails to achieve a satisfactory result, Emmanuel Macron's intervention at the G7 summit in Hiroshima on 19, 20 and 21 May will be crucial.
It is also for this reason that we have asked Dominique Riquet MEP to help us remind the Japanese in parliament that they are bound to the EU by an obligation of mutual legal assistance, an action that is already underway.

"Can the French judge succeed in conducting the investigation by going on location?"

By going on locationa sense of protocol and respect obliges the local police to receive the judge.
Because of her status, she will be able to verify the work carried out by the Japanese. Which in itself is a major step forward
As you can see, since the criminal investigation has not been opened in Nikko, how can witnesses be interviewed? How do you get the hotel searched and forensics involved?
This is why the combined actions of the UN, the Élysée Palace, the EU and, of course, the French embassy in Japan are going to "push" for the investigation to be brought to a conclusion.


BBM

 

[bearbear]

i just heard about this today on french news, and wondering if she could have disappeared herself, did she leave her phone and documents behind that day? not to be morbid but aokigahara forest is approximately 31/2 hours away by car or 51/2 by public transport, also was the hotel reception/manager the last person to allegedly see her?

Aokigahara - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ZaZara]

Disparition de Tiphaine Véron : au Japon, les familles de disparus « ne se bougent pas autant »




Disappearance of Tiphaine Véron: in Japan, the families of the missing "don't make that much of a fuss" to find them

In Japan, relatives of missing persons "don't get that active" to find them, says a private detective recently recruited to work on the disappearance of French tourist Tiphaine Véron in 2018.

Damien Véron, Tiphaine's older brother, returned to Japan in October for almost six weeks: his seventh visit to the archipelago since his sister, 36 at the time, vanished in July 2018 while in Nikko, a small tourist town 150 km north of Tokyo.

In the absence of formal proof that this was a criminal case, the investigation by the local police was very limited and sketchy, according to the Véron family, who have been moving heaven and earth ever since, both in France and in Japan, to try to obtain answers.

In early 2023, the French investigation was relaunched and handed over to the Nanterre centre for unsolved crimes.

But even if they come to Japan, the French investigating judges "won't be able to hold hearings or question suspects", Damien Véron fears. That's why the family is continuing to call in private investigators in Japan, so that they can "follow suspects, perhaps try to see if they behave strangely, if they might be involved in some story".

And if any evidence is found by these means, it may "be transferred to the French file, as the judges see fit, and then requests for explanations may be made to the Japanese police on the spot".

The new Japanese detective recruited by the Véron family prefers to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons. Aged 45, he says he has a decade's experience in the profession. "In general, I deal with adultery cases; in my practice, that accounts for 70% to 80% of investigations", he explains. A company may also ask him to keep an eye on one of its employees whom it suspects of being dishonest, or to find someone who has run away from his creditors.

"I've already worked on missing persons cases, but the level of difficulty wasn't comparable" with the Tiphaine Véron case, he admits. "Personally, I don't think it was a simple accident."

He was initially tasked with tracing a potential suspect whose trail was apparently never taken seriously by the Japanese police, despite the Véron family's insistence.

"Normally when Japanese people disappear, their relatives don't make that much of a fuss to find them," this private detective observes. Why is that? The Japanese are "perhaps a little naive", he believes. "We tend to believe the police, and if they say they're doing their best, we'll wait for the results. The Japanese trust the authorities more". And they prefer to suffer in silence.

"What's unbearable is that we have the impression that there are leads open in every direction, but the were never closed. So we're going to close them," Damien Véron says.

On his return to France, he is preparing to become an employee of an association that is being set up to help and advise other families looking for loved ones who have disappeared abroad.


BBM

 

[imstilla.grandma]

"We want the investigation file to be handed to the (French) authorities," Damien Veron said at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Japan in Tokyo, as that should give the family information that has, so far, been difficult to access.

"I would also like to say we would have never been able to do all the search and investigations that we have done without the help of the Japanese people," he said.

"We are going to fight. Please don't forget Tiphaine."

French man says sister missing in Japan since 2018 a victim of crime

The brother of a French woman who went missing in 2018 during a trip to a tourist spot north of Tokyo said Friday he believes she was likely a victim of a crime, despite police investigations failing to determine whether there was an accident or nefarious activity. "We want the…

japantoday.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Damien Veron, the brother of missing French woman Tiphaine Veron, speaks at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Japan in Tokyo on Nov. 24, 2023.

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The brother of a French woman who went missing in 2018 during a trip to a tourist spot north of Tokyo said Friday he believes she was likely a victim of a crime, despite police investigations failing to determine whether there was an accident or nefarious activity.

He said he has identified some discrepancies in information he and the local police have discovered, such as in positioning data from her mobile phone.

He said he wants access to the findings of the Japanese authorities but finds it difficult to navigate the Japanese justice system to make that possible.

French man says sister missing in Japan since 2018 a victim of crime - The Mainichi

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The brother of a French woman who went missing in 2018 during a trip to a tourist spot north of Tokyo said Friday he believes she was

mainichi.jp