Evidence misfiled for 12 years may have allowed killer to walk free

Crime Nov. 28, 2011 - 01:00PM JST ( 25 )

TOKYO —

Critical evidence in a 1999 murder case in Tokyo was misfiled by police and went undiscovered for 12 years as a result, authorities said Sunday.

The case concerns the murder of a 28-year-old woman in an apartment in Itabashi. According to NTV, the palm prints of prime suspect Seiji Uchida, 38, were taken from the crime scene and then misplaced in the police database. Sources say that the officer who filed the evidence did so under the supervision of an experienced superior who also failed to notice the mistake, NTV reported.

The evidence was found this year when an officer engaged in a separate investigation into Uchida, who was arrested this year for another crime, remembered the case and searched through the original materials.

The National Police Agency has urged all police stations to ensure that similar mistakes have not taken place in their databases, NTV reported.

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25 Comments

0

Elbuda MexicanoNov. 28, 2011 - 01:49PM JST

Horrible news! I hope this killer is arrested ASAP!
1

Tamesu SanNov. 28, 2011 - 02:18PM JST

"The National Police Agency has urged all police stations to ensure that similar mistakes have not taken place in their databases"

lets see what really happens......
2

zichiNov. 28, 2011 - 02:22PM JST

Statue of Limitations at the time of the crime was 15 years, he almost got away with it. The SOL is now 25 years.
1

CrazyJoeNov. 28, 2011 - 02:31PM JST

The killer is Seiji Uchida, he was arrested this year for the murder. Police could have arrested Uchida earlier if not for the bungle. That's what the article is about.
0

MaitakeNov. 28, 2011 - 02:51PM JST

Horrible news! I hope the J-cops get some filing skills ASAP!!!!
2

CrazyJoeNov. 28, 2011 - 02:54PM JST

There is no statue of limitations for murder in Japan. The law was amended in April 2010. (retroactive for 15 years).

Source: http://isata.seesaa.net/article/147992386.html
3

CrickyNov. 28, 2011 - 03:00PM JST

What are the cops doing? Besides forcing confessions from the innocent, misplacing evidence and turning those in danger away? It has become a weekly comedy. Must be time for a complete review from the ground up. Or an emphasis on training and professionalism.
2

darkbobNov. 28, 2011 - 03:59PM JST

Hardly reassuring knowing the keystones have bungled things again. They don't have even one ounce of my trust I'm afraid.
-3

LifeIsPainNov. 28, 2011 - 04:30PM JST

The first time you have heard of such a mistake is not the time to be yelling "keystones" Mistakes happen. Plenty of good reasons to call the J-plods "keystones" but this is not it.

What surprises me is that a guy so dumb as to leave a palm print at a murder scene did not do something equally stupid in a matter of months in get caught soon after. Took this over a decade. Guy must at least have luck on his side.
5

gaijinfoNov. 28, 2011 - 04:37PM JST

C'mon, don't be so hard on the J-stones. It's tough catching criminals if they don't walk into the Koban and confess.
0

zichiNov. 28, 2011 - 06:08PM JST

sorry, the J-cops won't be the first or the only cops to have done this. Vital evidence often goes missing?
1

Badge213Nov. 28, 2011 - 06:15PM JST

The SOL is now 25 years.

Actually SOL was eliminated for Murder.
0

zichiNov. 28, 2011 - 06:18PM JST

Badge213

thanks for the update/info.......
0

zichiNov. 28, 2011 - 06:21PM JST

Statute of limitations for murder abolished, and came into effect Apr.20, 2010.
0

CrazyJoeNov. 28, 2011 - 06:51PM JST

The statue of limitations for murder got axed on April 27, 2010.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20100428a4.html
1

LifeIsPainNov. 28, 2011 - 07:00PM JST

Anyone counting on the SOL is now SOL! LOL!
0

wanderlustNov. 28, 2011 - 07:13PM JST

A turn up for the books. Usually they jail innocent people, misfile evidence that would have shown they were not guilty, force confessions, mass produce depositions, and falsify evidence to maintain their high conviction rate...

J-pol are losing it...
0

timtakNov. 28, 2011 - 07:21PM JST

I wonder if the victims of the crime that was committed this year can sue the police for facilitating it.
0

GWNov. 28, 2011 - 07:33PM JST

Kinda hard to tell just how they screwed up, the data base sounds like it might be a shoe box collection of stuff that the keystone did something with...........
-1

CrazyJoeNov. 28, 2011 - 07:37PM JST

"Anyone counting on the SOL is now SOL! LOL!"

Nolo contendere!
-1

Elbuda MexicanoNov. 28, 2011 - 09:54PM JST

On the other how many innocent people have also been put behind bars??
-1

CosNov. 28, 2011 - 10:06PM JST

I wonder if the victims of the crime that was committed this year can sue the police for facilitating it.

Not sure they did it. The mistake was failing to include Uchida in the national data base. But even if he has been in the DB, they wouldn't have checked his prints as they take print samples only for foreigners (don't they ?) or for Japanese nationals arrested for something serious... If I understand well, they got prints to compare only because he was involved in the second murder, so that was too late for this person anyway. Maybe he had a criminal record, and his prints in the DB from the start ? The article doesn't precise.
0

Tamesu SanNov. 29, 2011 - 12:12AM JST

@ "C'mon, don't be so hard on the J-stones. It's tough catching criminals if they don't walk into the Koban and confess."

A guy from base told me that he was driving in Shinagawa, and they mistook him for a gaigin who did something in Roppongi, so they fingerprinted him and took a DNA swab of his mouth..but let him go later....
1

megosaaNov. 29, 2011 - 01:22PM JST

common human error. happens everywhere and mostly goes unreported and if so,unexaggerated.
0

Elbuda MexicanoNov. 29, 2011 - 07:15PM JST

Very scary all of these cold hearted comments!