Police ask for public's help in 1995 triple murder case at Hachioji supermarket
TOKYO —
Tokyo metropolitan police on Saturday handed out leaflets in the vicinity of JR Hachioji Station, asking the public to help in the 16-year-old investigation into the murders of three women at a supermarket in 1995.
Although the statute of limitations in the case expired last year, 20 police officers are still assigned to the case, exploring any leads. Police handed out nearly 4,000 leaflets at the station on Saturday.
The crime took place at about 9:15 on the night of July 30, 1995, at the Nanpei Owata supermarket. Three women employees, all part-timers, aged 47, 17 and 16, were in the 2nd floor office after the store had closed, when they were murdered by a person or persons unknown. Police said that passersby reported 5 shots being heard at about 9:17.
The three women were later found bound with tape and shot to death.
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30 Comments
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-10
some14some
Waste of stationery, time and human resources, in a country where nearly 30,000 people commit suicide every year and this tragedy happened 16 years ago.
Moderator
Japan's suicide rate is not relevant to this discussion.
1
miamum
Suicides choose to die. These women didnt, and Im sure their families dont see this as a waste of time and resources. Someone took their lives away from them. That person should be found and punished.
-6
some14some
and my point is that's too difficult...that person might have committed suicide long ago.
5
Okinawamike
It's called closure, something one would hope you will never need.
0
my2sense
Japan's most wanted bulletin has been at my station for 10 years and has never been updated. I have been to investigative quarters before and even customs offices. They serious have 1970 rotary phones. This is just bizarre, handing out leaflets on the murder anniversary. Might as well hand them another memo that says you suck at your job and were in High School when it happened.
-1
JapanHusker
No statute of limitation on murder in Japan. (sigh) And yet another layer of the 1st - world-country veneer is swiftly removed....
3
Zenny11
Just another Cold Case(unsolved murder, etc) those exist in every country and are plenty.
Hard to solve those as many witnesses have moved away or died and even than memory of what happened is weak. Most Cold Cases are only reopened/solved when someone comes forward with new evidence.
-1
JapanHusker
Sorry. What I MEANT was, having "A statute of limitations on murder" = 3rd world country.
1
Bartholomew Harte
Why is there a "Staute of Limitations" on Murder in Japan? Many cases in the U.S. have been solved by what is known as the Cold Case Squad,revisiting the evidence as well as using the latest forensic tools available-!
0
BlueWitch
JapanHuskerJul. 31, 2011 - 09:40AM JST
[Sorry. What I MEANT was, having "A statute of limitations on murder" = 3rd world country.]
~Yep, another of the many many ridiculous/Draconian/outdated/ass-backward that makes Japan a THIRD WORLD country on the inside, especially their corrupted judicial system of course.
Bartholomew HarteJul. 31, 2011 - 09:52AM JST
**Why is there a "Staute of Limitations" on Murder in Japan? Many cases in the U.S. have been solved by what is known as the Cold Case Squad,revisiting the evidence as well as using the latest forensic tools available-! **
~ honey, are you referring to tv programs like "forensic files"? They rock but stuff like that just doesn't happen in this country, here they convict people without any single trace of evidence as you can imagine. They think they don't need to do anything forensic or work more in order to solve a crime which leaves them with TONS of cold cases every year. The Police is far outdated and useless. They show brilliant expertize when it comes to stop Foreign person on their bicycles and harass them though!! I feel very sorry for these 3 women that were murdered and I hope they can somehow catch who did it, but its highly unlikely...we are talking about j-kops. Incompetence @ BEST!!
RIP to the 3 victims of this horrendous crime.
5
CrazyJoe
Japan abolished the statue of limitations for murder on April 27, 2010.
0
paulinusa
Was it a robbery(not mentioned in story)? A grudge by a former employee? Going only on the details given, sounds like a crime of anger. Five shots, three women bound. And why even kill them?
0
Badge213
Japan abolished the statute of limitations for murder last year.
However it's not ex post facto.
3
Virtuoso
Several articles and shows on TV suggest that the Hachioji supermarket killer probably didn't know how to handle a firearm. He might not have even realized the safety was off on his weapon (angle of entry wound of the first victim indicates the gun might have discharged accidentally, and then he killed the next two because they could identify him). So I'm afraid there is no evidence at all regarding the nationality of the killer. Something was leaked to the media quite recently that the bullets fired by the murder weapon were not all of the same type. It's bizarre that this is being made public so long after the crime.
4
JeffLee
There have been several robberies by Japanese that are highly violent and shocking in nature. About 15 years ago a Japanese guy tied up and set fire to several female clerks at a neighborhood jewelry store, burning them to death, even worse than the Hachioji horror. In another case, money lenders stuffed 2 (or 3?) women in a barrel of gasoline and tossed a match in, killing them. However, I can't recall foreign theives in Japan ever doing such things.
Still, the fact the Hachioji person hasn't been found may suggest he fled to a foreign country.
0
chewitup
Many? How many? People think the difference between having the statute and not is night and day, but its not. Its the gray of dusk.
But its gone now and we will see how effective it is when today's cases go unsolved 15 years from now. A couple more solved or a couple more unsolved out of thousands; it won't really be provable with numbers but remain a philosophical question.
0
paulinusa
chewitup : What's been happening in the US is that DNA collected from recently arrested criminals are matched up against evidence from long ago unsolved crimes. Of course, it's all conditional on that evidence still being available and uncorrupted.
0
Scrote
If the statute of limitations has expired the police should put their time to better use, e.g. by pursuing organised crime groups. It seems a waste of resources to continue to investigate a crime that can no longer be punished, although I can understand that relatives of the victims would like to find out who the culprit was.
0
CrazyJoe
373 murder cases including the Hachioji supermarket triple murder case do not have any statue of limitations. Also as Badge213 stated, it is not retroactive.
0
chewitup
Well, that is wonderful. I have no words against it. But I am not going to declare that masses of cases are suddenly being solved either, and I cannot say if a statute of limitations would have helped that or helped bring more closure. I just take issue with statements that say pretend a statute has no benefits whatsoever, as if the authorties came up with that as an excuse to be lazy or something.
0
smithinjapan
Awww.... they handed out leaflets. How cute! The murderer need not worry; if the very short and pathetic Japanese statute of limitation on murder hasn't passed yet it will soon. In the mean time, the J-Cops can once again as everyone else to do their work while they look for bicycle thieves.
0
smithinjapan
The murderer could very well accept a leaflet from the J-cops, admit s/he is the one who did it, and the police could do nothing because the ridiculous statute of limitations has passed. Why on earth do they have that, anyway?
The police here are useless, and the justice system even worse.
0
Heythia
@bluewitch, yes japan is so backward without it's statute of limitation. Oh hey what's this? the US has no statute of limitation for first degree murder?
Oh yea the cold case files? There's a group called the innocent project that uses forensic to get people out of prison in the US. But I highly doubt you know anything like that.
And Europe? Guilty until proven innocent. I'm sorry blue witch but with all your j bashing, I see you failed to do research on reality and not what's in your head
0
OsakaT
Murder and suicide are two differrent things. This person may have gone on to commit more murders and terrible crimes. People like that need to locked up.
0
FireyRei
Anything is better than nothing. At least the police aren't fully giving up.
0
Chinchan Zu
so the motive was robbery???
0
Elbuda Mexicano
I have no idea, but I do not think these criminals were native Japanese, anyway I do pray and hope they catch who ever did this in Hachioji!
0
Armen Aslanyan
Ok, I'll see the movie when it comes out.
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