Kayo Matsuzawa,29,Japanese tourist murdered,Auckland,NZ

[dotr]

Killing of tourist in central Auckland: Breakthrough in 20-year cold case

Police have new suspect in case of Japanese tourist Kayo Matsuzawa killed hours after arriving in city.

Police have a new suspect for the murder of Japanese tourist Kayo Matsuzawa in 1998. Photo / Supplied
August 14 2018
"Police have a new suspect in a 20-year-old cold case in which a Japanese tourist's decomposing body was found in the service closet of a central Auckland building.

Following last night's Cold Case show on TVNZ, police revealed today that they have a new suspect for the murder of Japanese woman Kayo Matsuzawa and banking records show the suspect was in the immediate vicinity of where Matsuzawa's body was found.

However, police are remaining tight-lipped over the person of interest, who used a bank card at a nearby BNZ ATM machine on September 11, 1998, the day Matsuzawa went missing."
"The 29-year-old was killed just hours after she arrived in Auckland. Her naked body was dumped in an utility cupboard in the Centrecourt Building on Queen St."

"Matsuzawa checked into the Queen Street Backpackers for three nights and at 2.14pm was filmed by CCTV cameras getting off a bus and crossing Queen St.

The grainy images are the last of her alive.

Ten days later her body was found in the cupboard."

 

[dotr]

Cold Case: Police find new leads under murder victim Kayo Matsuzawa's fingernails

Cold Case: Police find new leads under murder victim Kayo Matsuzawa's fingernails
12 Aug, 2018 rbbm.

Points of interest for investigators
"It was revealed on TVNZ's Cold Case that unknown male DNA was located under Matsuzawa's fingernails, a key bit of evidence that was missed in 1998."

"Technology at the time of her death meant the DNA under her fingernails went unnoticed but with modern advancements, police were able to find new evidence.

Detectives used a YSTR test, which only searches for male Y chromosome cells, and determined that the DNA under her fingernails was not Matsuzawa's."
"Police believe she was only in Auckland for several hours before meeting her killer and the last sighting of her was from a camera outside the BNZ on Queen St.

The last sighting was shortly after Matsuzawa checked into the backpackers on Fort St, both the bank and backpackers are close to the place her body was found.

Police also believe she may have been targeted by the man she met on the afternoon of the 11th and it's possible he spiked her drink."
"Before her death, she was seen wearing black bootleg pants, a black jacket, black shoes and carrying a backpack."
If you have any information in relation to her belongings, or if the predatory behaviour sounds familiar, police would like to speak to you.

Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact the police or call Cold Case on 0800 2653 2273 (0800 COLD CASE)."

 

[dotr]

The Investigator - Who Killed Kayo? - Part One

 

[Limier]

Kayo went missing on this day 20 years ago, but her murder remains unsolved: Kayo Matsuzawa’s Unsolved Murder.

 

[daikon.radish]

More than another year has passed. I can’t find any further developments about the DNA they found under her nails. I hope this one can be solved soon.

 

[dotr]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12259818

NEW ZEALAND
Cash for convictions: Police offer more than $1.65 million in rewards
20 Aug, 2019

 

[ekardh]

The documentary managed to narrow down the pool of suspects to someone who had after-hours access to the building. Now they have some DNA evidence, you'd hope it won't be long before they make a breakthrough in this investigation. Kayo deserves justice.

 

[dotr]

PART 2

 

[dotr]

Kayo Matsuzawa - 1998

Kayo Matsuzawa

''Japanese woman Kayo Matsuzawa came to New Zealand in 1997 to study English in Christchurch, to work and travel. On 11 September 1998 she flew to Auckland city and checked into a backpackers on Fort Street before heading out to explore the city that afternoon. She never returned to the backpackers.

Eleven days later her naked and decomposing body was found in a small room off the stairwell in the Centrecourt Building in Queen Street.

Police believe 29-year-old Kayo had only been in the city for several hours before she met her killer.

The last sighting of the young woman was from security camera footage outside the BNZ in Queen St, shortly after she had checked into a downtown-backpackers in Fort Street. Both the bank and backpackers are close to the Centrecourt building where Kayo’s body was found.

The Centrecourt Building in Queen Street where
Kayo’s body was found in a small room off a stairwell.

Police think Kayo may have been targeted by a man who has approached her that afternoon. It is possible this man may have spiked her drink. Police want to hear from anyone if this sort of predatory behaviour from the 1990’s in Auckland sounds familiar.

For the first time, Police have revealed that unknown male DNA material was located under Kayo’s fingernails.



Although Kayo’s passport was recovered from a public rubbish bin close to where her body was discovered, her clothes and jewellery have never been found.

Kayo was wearing black bootleg pants, a black jacket, black shoes and carrying a backpack. She had crescent-shaped earrings and a small delicate gold ring with a single pink stone. Do you have any information about these items?

Police need your help to solve the murder of Kayo Matsuzawa.''

 

[ekardh]

I hope the police are just biding their time to get a DNA sample of a suspect.

 

[dotr]

Oct 15 2022
By Anna Leask

Cold case: Who killed Japanese tourist Kayo Matsuzawa?

The Herald looks back at the 1998 killing of Japanese tourist Kayo Matsuzawa

www.nzherald.co.nz

Kayo Matsuzawa was found dead in a locked utility cupboard off a stairwell in the bowels of an Auckland CBD building in 1998. Her killer has never been found. Photo / Supplied

''Kayo Matsuzawa was on her dream trip to New Zealand where she planned to study, work and perfect her English. But the 29-year-old was murdered just two ...''

 

[ekardh]

I'm still surprised they haven't been able to pin down a suspect. There was surely only a small number of people who had knowledge of the utility room and had access to the security logs. They also have the male DNA under Kayo's fingerprints to narrow down their search.

Justice is long overdue for Kayo and her family.

 

[huhubug]

Police talked of a promising development when Kayo’s case appeared on the Cold Case show but that was a few years back now. Like you say it’s surprising they couldn’t narrow it down based on accessibility to the utility room alone.

 

[ekardh]

Police talked of a promising development when Kayo’s case appeared on the Cold Case show but that was a few years back now. Like you say it’s surprising they couldn’t narrow it down based on accessibility to the utility room alone.

Yeah, it really makes you wonder.

Just realised my last post referred to fingerprints, when I obviously meant fingernails.

Btw, I found this on Wikipedia, I'm not sure if this suspect has ever been discussed on here:

In 1998, [Allan] Grimson was working at the Royal New Zealand Navy base of Devonport on an exchange programme of fire fighting training. Whilst he was there, a 29-year-old female Japanese immigrant, Kayo Matsuzawa, was found dead and hidden in a fire alarm cupboard in a stairwell of a building in Auckland. Grimson was considered as a suspect (although there are others) as he was friendly with the building manager. The building manager admitted that he had seen Grimson in the building on several occasions, and whilst Grimson was a suspect, investigators have noted that his other victims were men.

 

[ekardh]

*bumping for Kayo*

Found this on Reddit, a supposed communication from Bryan Bruce, who originally profiled the case on national television back in 2009:

"The detective in charge of the case said the problem was the computer had very little memory so printed out it's data on the dot matrix printer and the paper files were stored, The issue is that for the night in question the files were missing - the suspect claimed the printer had a problem. I proved the printer had no such problem so someone took those print outs. It could only have been one person. I gave the police the name of that person and nothing has happened . So I am considering revisiting the case."

I wonder if the suspect he's referring to his Grimson? Either way, it's frustrating that there's been no update in the investigation since 2018.

 

[Vortexaire]

Have the New Zealand police checked their sex offender databases?