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

[Incoherent]

One wonders if the perpetrator observed the house in advance, just to understand the lifestyle and the schedule of both houses. Meaning, he had to know when they’d wake up, and how much time he’d have before morning. It is possible that initially he didn’t care whether he’d be caught or not, but if he planned to escape, he’d have to be aware of their schedules. Yasuko mentioned a car parking too closely. One wonders how much one could see from the park as opposed to the front of the house.

There is a clear view of the front of the Miyazawa house from the other side of the river, where there are hundreds of houses. Plenty of people could watch the front of the Miyazawa and Irie houses from their bedroom windows with ease. It wouldn’t take too long to work out a routine by just watching for a few weeks. From the park side not much at all, but if there was ever a routine of that bathroom window being left open you’d be able to spot it even from the university dormitories opposite.

 

[Charlot123]

There is a clear view of the front of the Miyazawa house from the other side of the river, where there are hundreds of houses. Plenty of people could watch the front of the Miyazawa and Irie houses from their bedroom windows with ease. It wouldn’t take too long to work out a routine by just watching for a few weeks. From the park side not much at all, but if there was ever a routine of that bathroom window being left open you’d be able to spot it even from the university dormitories opposite.

Thank you.

 

[Mandala]

Is there an aerial map showing the house and surrounding areas?

 

[dub]

I understand what you mean. If we assume the labelling is a footprint then it seems it is almost running away from the house, not heading to the Irie side. The gap in between the ア and イ is big enough to be a stride or show someone running.

To me those actually look too far apart to be a normal stride even running, maybe a straight up leap but it looks like you could fit an entire adult man in that gap with room to spare.

But it could be consistent with the space between two steps, with whoever left them only having blood on one of their shoes - maybe that makes them more likely to be Haruko’s?

On the other hand though, is that a third marker just inside the door, partially obscured by the wire? If so it looks a similar/slightly shorter gap than the gap between the other two, which could suggest someone breaking into a run right as they exit the door.

In any case, that’s really interesting.

 

[Incoherent]

To me those actually look too far apart to be a normal stride even running, maybe a straight up leap but it looks like you could fit an entire adult man in that gap with room to spare.

But it could be consistent with the space between two steps, with whoever left them only having blood on one of their shoes - maybe that makes them more likely to be Haruko’s?

On the other hand though, is that a third marker just inside the door, partially obscured by the wire? If so it looks a similar/slightly shorter gap than the gap between the other two, which could suggest someone breaking into a run right as they exit the door.

In any case, that’s really interesting.

I agree the gap between the 2 outside markers is very wide. In the entrance inside there are 3 markers that look like they’re marking drops of blood, not footprints. If you check my previous image they’re just small circles of something on the inside.
Outside it’s impossible to tell, but rather than footprints it could be the killer’s wound still dripping as he ran away. Similarly, it could be Haruko’s footprints though the direction they’re in head away from the house. Ultimately I don’t think we’ll ever know, but if it holds any significance I’d like to think the TMPD would speak on it… however they never have done.

All we really understand is that there was something there that has been marked. I will look for more images to see if we can get a close up of the outside markers but I’m not hopeful.

 

[FacelessPodcast]

Apologies for the radio silence, thread friends. I promised I'd return with news when/if there was any. As such: an offer has been made from a major audio platform for another Miyazawa murder podcast written / hosted by your humble narrator.

All being well, we should be out in time for the 25th anniversary of the murders.

 

[Lexiintoronto]

Apologies for the radio silence, thread friends. I promised I'd return with news when/if there was any. As such: an offer has been made from a major audio platform for another Miyazawa murder podcast written / hosted by your humble narrator.

All being well, we should be out in time for the 25th anniversary of the murders.

Congratulations! This is great.

 

[Incoherent]

Apologies for the radio silence, thread friends. I promised I'd return with news when/if there was any. As such: an offer has been made from a major audio platform for another Miyazawa murder podcast written / hosted by your humble narrator.

All being well, we should be out in time for the 25th anniversary of the murders.

Fantastic news. I hope someone out there just became a lot more nervous.

 

[lilykaluva]

Apologies for the radio silence, thread friends. I promised I'd return with news when/if there was any. As such: an offer has been made from a major audio platform for another Miyazawa murder podcast written / hosted by your humble narrator.

All being well, we should be out in time for the 25th anniversary of the murders.

Congrats Nic!! So happy to hear this.

 

[Eliver]

Apologies for the radio silence, thread friends. I promised I'd return with news when/if there was any. As such: an offer has been made from a major audio platform for another Miyazawa murder podcast written / hosted by your humble narrator.

All being well, we should be out in time for the 25th anniversary of the murders.

Amazing news!

 

[eddie_van]

Apologies for the radio silence, thread friends. I promised I'd return with news when/if there was any. As such: an offer has been made from a major audio platform for another Miyazawa murder podcast written / hosted by your humble narrator.

All being well, we should be out in time for the 25th anniversary of the murders.

very cool. there is such a lack of content on this one.

 

[Cryptic]

Apologies for the radio silence, thread friends. I promised I'd return with news when/if there was any. As such: an offer has been made from a major audio platform for another Miyazawa murder podcast written / hosted by your humble narrator.

All being well, we should be out in time for the 25th anniversary of the murders.

Hard work, accuracy and a good reputation pay off!!

 

[pillywiggin]

Apologies for the radio silence, thread friends. I promised I'd return with news when/if there was any. As such: an offer has been made from a major audio platform for another Miyazawa murder podcast written / hosted by your humble narrator.

All being well, we should be out in time for the 25th anniversary of the murders.

Great news! I can’t wait to listen!

 

[Frankie Hellis]

Apologies for the radio silence, thread friends. I promised I'd return with news when/if there was any. As such: an offer has been made from a major audio platform for another Miyazawa murder podcast written / hosted by your humble narrator.

All being well, we should be out in time for the 25th anniversary of the murders.

A little late, but so very happy about this!

 

[derFrosch]

Hi Nic!

I registered just to send this message, actually. I just wanted to thank you for all your work and am looking forward to the next podcast. I have been thinking about this case a lot these last few years, and to think that there might be some advancement to finding the murderer is great to hear.

As for your approach, I wonder if you can answer these questions:

1. The way you got the name(s) of the murderer, or his family, is that possible for the normal citizen to find out? I had contacted Japanese and American Private Investigation Agencies and I was always told that lists of American Airbase Employees are not to be found. Did it help that you already have a podcast/long history on this case?

2. Do you believe that, behind walls, the Japanese LE is actually heavily speculating that the culprit does have that US Airbase connection, they are just not saying it publicly, in order not to harm any US-Japanese relationships.

3. Your POI, do you believe he has distanced himself from this cruel act, that his mind has separated from it, as if it was a different person. If not, don't you think he might be reading this thread, listen to your podcasts etc..?

Sorry, if some of these have been asked before. If you don't have the time to answer the same questions over and over again, then please feel free to ignore. Once again, impressive work and effort, whether or not your POI is the guy, I find your effort and persistence incredible.

 

[Incoherent]

Just a little tidbit of info that I found interesting and others might too.

A Japanese YouTuber got his hands on old maps of Setagaya and the Kamisoshigaya neighbourhood that ranged back from 1980 up until 2000 and discovered that the building directly next to the Miyazawa house on the right was actually student housing during the 80’s and part of the 90’s, and not a house. After the Miyazawa’s and Irie’s moved in during 1990 it then changed into an apartment building that housed several tenants.
Interestingly the house directly to the left of the Miyazawa house had the owner listed with the same surname as the owner listed on the apartment building to the right. It wasn’t confirmed but it’s possible the same person owned both buildings that sandwiched the family house.
Furthermore, due to the walking distance from surrounding train stations and the apartment building likely only having had one-room type apartments for its original purpose of housing students, the YouTuber speculates the rent would have been cheap and likely continued to house either students or mainly young people.

The apartment building was still on the neighbourhood map at the end of 1999 but then was gone by the end of 2000, meaning it was there until perhaps only a half year before the murders.

Just as a side note and not to speak for him, but we should not expect any further information to be given from Nic at all while the podcast is being made to prevent the investigation from being tampered or interfered with. There are unfortunately people out there and on these threads with bad intentions that have already caused problems and had to be dealt with swiftly. By the time the podcast is finished we will have an answer.

 

[SteveL]

Just a little tidbit of info that I found interesting and others might too.

A Japanese YouTuber got his hands on old maps of Setagaya and the Kamisoshigaya neighbourhood that ranged back from 1980 up until 2000 and discovered that the building directly next to the Miyazawa house on the right was actually student housing during the 80’s and part of the 90’s, and not a house. After the Miyazawa’s and Irie’s moved in during 1990 it then changed into an apartment building that housed several tenants.
Interestingly the house directly to the left of the Miyazawa house had the owner listed with the same surname as the owner listed on the apartment building to the right. It wasn’t confirmed but it’s possible the same person owned both buildings that sandwiched the family house.
Furthermore, due to the walking distance from surrounding train stations and the apartment building likely only having had one-room type apartments for its original purpose of housing students, the YouTuber speculates the rent would have been cheap and likely continued to house either students or mainly young people.

The apartment building was still on the neighbourhood map at the end of 1999 but then was gone by the end of 2000, meaning it was there until perhaps only a half year before the murders.

Just as a side note and not to speak for him, but we should not expect any further information to be given from Nic at all while the podcast is being made to prevent the investigation from being tampered or interfered with. There are unfortunately people out there and on these threads with bad intentions that have already caused problems and had to be dealt with swiftly. By the time the podcast is finished we will have an answer.

While listening to the Case Files podcast, they mentioned an interesting tidbit I hadn’t heard. They claim the Miyazawas moved into the home when many homes in the area had already been demolished, or were in the process. If this is accurate, it would be yet another odd tidbit. I also wonder if this might in some way offer a clue to the killers motivation, proximity, etc.?

 

[Eliver]

While listening to the Case Files podcast, they mentioned an interesting tidbit I hadn’t heard. They claim the Miyazawas moved into the home when many homes in the area had already been demolished, or were in the process. If this is accurate, it would be yet another odd tidbit. I also wonder if this might in some way offer a clue to the killers motivation, proximity, etc.?

If memory serves me right, this is not entirely accurate.

It has been documented many times that the Miyazawa's house was one of the few standing due to the town project of demolishing all of them and Nicolas has also explained (I don't remember if it was here, or in the podcast - or both) that the Miyazawas were looking for a new home or were at least in the beginning stages of looking for a new house.

However, the Miyazawas moved there in 1990, and at that time the houses in the area were neither in the process of being demolished, nor there were few houses.

In short: when they moved, it was a residential area in the middle of the park and there were quite a lot of houses.

 

[Incoherent]

I don’t have a better image to hand but you can see here on this map that a year or so before the Miyazawa’s moved in the construction of the northern part of the park that would become the kid‘s park, and the tennis courts, skate parks, etc, opposite all hadn’t been started yet.

The meeting held for the residents by the TMPGov to explain their eviction for the expansion of the park was in 1994 and that’s when houses slowly began to be demolished as deals were reached. Most were still standing by ‘97 but that’s when many started to go, and originally there had been 200 houses in that area in 1990.

I’ve circled the house the Miyazawa’s moved into and you can see the collection of houses there with some details. There’s the apartment building next to their house and also a little store too next to that. Would have been a very nice community sandwiched between the parks.

 

[SteveL]

Interesting AP news today out of Okinawa involving a US serviceman.

"The Naha District Court said Lance Cpl. Jamel Clayton, 22, of Ohio, was sentenced in the case on Tuesday. Clayton was found guilty of attacking the woman in her 20s in the Yomitan village on the main Okinawa island in May, 2024, chocking her from behind, sexually assaulting her and causing her injuries.

There has been growing calls for a revision to the Status of Forces Agreement that gives the United States the right to investigate most accidents and crimes that occur on Japanese soil."​