Setagaya family murders remain unsolved after 11 years
TOKYO —
Police officers on Friday paid their respects outside a home in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward, where a family of four was murdered 11 years ago.
Each year at this time, police hand out flyers appealing for information at nearby Seijogakuenmae train station, in the hope that someone will come forward with new information.
Mikio Miyazawa, 44, his 41-year-old wife Yasuko, 8-year-old daughter Niina, and 6-year-old son Rei, were found dead on the morning of Dec 31, 2000. Miyazawa’s son had been strangled, and the other three had been stabbed to death. Fingerprints and other evidence in the home indicate the killer used the computer and ate ice cream after the attack on Dec 30, spending up to 11 hours before leaving the next morning.
Approximately 190,000 officers have been involved in the case to date, and police have received more than 16,000 pieces of information from the public, yet the killer remains at large. Fifty police officers are still assigned to the case to follow up on any leads. The reward was raised from the initial 3 million yen to 10 million yen for information which leads to the killer or killers’ arrest.
Despite extensive detective work focusing on the killer’s clothing, accessories, weapons, and other circumstantial evidence such as the sand found on the clothing that the killer abandoned at the scene, police have not identified any suspects years after the murder.
Following the murders, police deduced that the clothes and knife left at the scene had been bought in Kanagawa Prefecture. Three kinds of powered fluorescent dye were found on the trainers and bag left at the scene. In the pocket of the sweater, which had only gone on sale two months before the killings took place, were found traces of bird dropping, Japanese zelkova tree and willow leaves.
DNA analysis has revealed that traces of blood found at the scene not belonging to the family suggests that the killer has a mother of European descent, possibly from a country near the Mediterranean or Adriatic Sea. Analysis of the Y-chromosome has revealed that the killer’s father is of Asian descent, with the DNA appearing in 1 in 4 or 5 Koreans, 1 in 10 Chinese, and 1 in 13 Japanese.
A relative of the family was quoted by NHK as saying, “I want to know why they were killed. To not have a suspect and no answers is frustrating. Although all this time has passed, I still pray that the killer will be caught.”
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jojo_in_japan
RIP .... =(
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Braindead
One day they'll get him. Persistence pays.
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miyazawa3
killer came as friendly...I guess.
Otherwise least on of them could have escape...
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timtak
The murderer should have a visible scarring to his hand(s) after he fought with the father. He bled a lot at the scene. An unidentified man, possibly the murderer, recieved first aid Toubu Nikkou train station to a wound to his right hand so deep that one could see the bone. Those that know a half-European tallish Asian man, of about 175-185cm in height, largish 28cm feet, 30-40 years old with type A blood, might ask to read their palm or some other excuse to look at their hands. The police site in English, which is also calling for (past) owners of the dark purple-sleeved, light grey bodied sweat shirt to come forward http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/foreign/wanted/seijo/seijo.htm
Due to the apparent intensity of the murderers hatred, and yet the lack of someone that hated the family among the people with real-world connections to the family, and the use of the father computer at 10 am the next morning, and the fact that the father described himself as a "digital human" I thought that the murderer might have a online reason to hate the family. The murderers check of all personal information relating to the deceased (lining up all of their cards and identification papers) might also suggest a search for a password.
2
oginome
I remember reading the 10th year anniversary article on this website last year. The fact that over a decade on, the killer remains at large must be devastating for the extended family, grief is even stronger when it is paired with a sense of justice not being done.
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Virtuoso
It was a heck of a headline to wake up to when opening the paper on the first morning of a new century, and when we look at what transpired in the decade that followed (9/11, wars, upheavals, etc.) it can certainly be regarded as prophetic.
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darkbob
This is one dreadful crime. It's haunted me as to why a person could do this to young children, parents and then calmly eat ice-creams and surf the net for hours afterwards. Just beyond me. Beyond anyone I'm sure ... Did the police try to connect the internet sites visited with some sort of profile? Also I didn't know that an unidentified man sought treatment the station? Is that true? Suffice to say this is a crime everyone wants solved and I have a feeling there was a quite a bit of police bungling involved somehow. RIP
Moderator: Japan Today covered this crime at the time. There was no police bungling, so please do not attempt to turn this thread into an anti-police rant. It reflects badly on yourself.
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USNinJapan2
Braindead
Only if it's in the next four years. Don't forget that justice in Japan is not only (theoretically) blind but also carries a 15-year stopwatch.
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CrazyJoe
There is no statue of limitations for murder now, retroactive to 1996.
2
timtak
@darkbob The murderer did not use the Internet much and used only the mouse, not the keyboard, visiting sites that were in the favourites of the browser. He created a folder perhaps on the desktop. At one point he visitied a drama company that the family frequented/liked and may have tried to book tickets. At another time he clicked some links on the father's company home page to take him to a chemistry related university research centre site. In other words the sites probably have had less to do with the profile of the murderer than the profile of the father who was murdered. I thought initially that the murderer had used the Internet more, but anyway, the fact that he used it at all, the spending the whole night in the place eating ice cream while going through the information about the deceased suggested to me a person that lived in the information world, rather than in the real one. I.e. the murderer's behaviour struck me as being that of a major geek. The father was too having written a book chapter about the Internet and, reading the wikipedia article today, I see that the father had an Internet persona ("kotehan").
The police are flummoxed because it had all the marks of a hate crime but no hate was found. The best they could come up with was an inculcation with youths, including skateboarders, that used the adjascent park at night. The skateboarder theory is not bad because it might explain the "American sand" that was found in the murderers waist pouch - sand from the grip tape used on skateboards perhaps (Other theories include an abrasive used in the rinting industry, or someone who goes to American beaches). But even so, would a skateboarder stab a family to death because they had stopped him skateboarding in a park? So where is the hate? There were two geeks in the house that night and hate can develop online too.
It is true that an unidentified man (about 30 then, 40 now) had treatment at a station in Nikkou, and the possibility that it was the murderer has not been ruled out. In any event the murderer is very likely to have scars on his hand or hands to this day. Easy to spot. So, do you know a tall Japanese speaking guy who always wears gloves? Alas, in this weather, most people wear gloves.
@USNinJapan2 I think that the statute of limitations has been removed for murder. Yes, last year.
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USNinJapan2
Crap, I'd forgotten about that bill that abolished the statute of limitations. So now the police can look incompetent indefinitely...
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LH10
RIP T.T it was probably a friend of the family or a relative...
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nishikat
Only that amount? That have probably spent 100s of millions (yen) already (I'm not criticizing it- just saying big cases cost big bucks). But if they make it 30m yen that might make someone talk even if the suspect is dead since if I remember correctly they can arrest someone posthumously.
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Cricky
Having trained Dectives- not promoted due to time served might help. In saying that, if no confesion it's hard to get an enough evidence to convict or take to court, I hope the cops know who it is but need evidence that degrades over time. It would be unusual for this type of crime to be random statistacly. They should bow and try harder, they know, I hope and need evidence. My money is a family dispute as the crime has not been duplicated...as far as I know. A data base is helpful, they should try it.
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m5c32
Wow, what? There are a total of 290'000 nationwide, so what like 65% of the total police force has been involved in this one case? What does involved in the case even mean, that that rate, read about the case somehow, heard about it second hand? What was the qualification for being "involved" in the case? That's magnificent inefficiency.
The perp is most likely long-gone --out of country probably in the following days/weeks, given the likely genetics. Hope might be if they send the prints overseas to see if there's a match somewhere.
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smartacus
Crimes like this are very difficult to solve after so long. The best chance will be through DNA, if the perpetrator is caught for some other crime.
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Yardley
The number of police officers "involved" in a high-profile case is always reported to show how seriously the case is being taken. How accurate those numbers ever are, or what exactly "involved" means, is not clear.
@timtak
I think it's possible this may have been done to confuse the police about time of death, and make it appear that the father was alive and using his computer.
I remember when this happened, and I can't believe it's been 11 years with no solution. From the story, it seems the police have a great deal of very detailed scientific evidence, but no way to connect the dots.
Too bad there apparently wasn't any station security camera operating at the time.
My heart goes out to the relatives and friends of the Miyazawa family. Such a tragedy - from which they will never fully recover. It would be some small measure of comfort if the scum who did this could be caught. I hope the police and the public never stop trying to find him. And while I know it's an impossible long-shot, I hope the murderer is suffering every second of his life in every way possible for what he did.
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borscht
It'll be difficult to sell that house if every year police show up to pay their respects to the dead.
1
Badge213
Remember, real life is not like TV or the movies, some crimes go unsolved. Some crimes get solved yearrrrss down the road. The criminal does something stupid and gets caught. From the looks of it, DNA evidence was collected, the bozo has to do something stupid and get caught.
There are many cases in history that show how a criminal has been found in the least suspecting ways, the Son of Sam was through a parking ticket, they got Al Capone on income tax invasion (though never on the more bad stuff), etc etc. Time will get this guy!
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supercub
He left many articles of clothing, ate ice cream, and stuck around for hours after the crime, yet he thought to shift the timeline a few hours? That doesn't make much sense. It seems more likely that he is a psychopath and enjoyed lurking in the aftermath of his violence and perhaps got a rush from taunting the police who would investigate. It seems like this guy knew he wouldn't get caught. I am guessing that he left Japan soon after this crime.
I am also guessing that the police have mostly ruled out people known to the victims and are working under the assumption that this was a random act. That's why their investigation is so centered on the forensic evidence.
All of this points to a deeply disturbed psychopath who is likely to act violently again. If I were the police, I would be going through Interpol and working with Korean and Southern European authorities to review case files from the last 10 years that involved violent acts committed by someone who fits this general description.
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timtak
He was fluent at Japanese but he behaved as if he were about to leave the country forever, leaving behind every kind of evidence: his clothes, shoes, blood, waist pouch (and hence waist size) fingerprints and, in the cistern, a stool (showing the food that he ate). He also had scars on his hands.
So, I am sure that the police have ruled out friends and family members, and people known to the victims. The police only need to meet suspects, and say "show me your palms" (let alone look at fingerprints).
Yet the crime bears the marks of a dispute: excessive violence to the victims, lack of interest in monetary gain, and lack of repitition as would be seen in a serial killer.
There were no repeat crimes of the same time, in Japan at least, so it seems unlikely we are looking at a pathological 'I get kicks from killing' serial killer.
He spent 8 hours going through the personal information of his victims and no one knows why. He left their bank book and seal untouched. He left all the credit cards at the scene. He left an envelope containing 60000 yen untouched. He removed no possessions (other than replacement clothes). And yet he went through all their personal information, methodically, going through it and then dumping it in the bath. He left the victims'most personal information - their cards - arranged methodically. He was well into information, and ice cream, amongst all that blood.
-1
Cricky
It can not be a one off crime as the killer was methodical and displayed no panic or flee action but a calm and apparently some enjoyment from this action. There is a build up...it can not be that it's a one off.
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LostinNagoya
The Michael Connely inside me thinks this was a professional killer that may have planted misleading hints (he may well be a Japanese man who just left traces bought over the net from an European man or brought to Japan after a trip to Europe), and that after 11 years the only way he will be caught will be the day he drinks too much and speaks more than he should.
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timtak
Come to think of it having a European mum or access to European DNA back in 1970 suggests either a European, a hit man like LostinNagoya says, or someone very powerful that perhaps even the police would rather leave alone. RIP to the victims..
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Arashi Stormlover Arashistormlover
I lived very near there at the time (don't worry- I am Caucasian, no Asian blood). I cycled past it the night that happened. Didn't notice anything. Cops never came around to question me. One time I asked a local cop if any progress, then they half jokingly asked my shoe size and checked my hands for scars. Japanese media also reported that cops had bungled evidence (eg nengajo) and falsified investigation records, out of laziness. So a total Keystone Cops operation. Lots of talk in the Japanese internet boards about motive. Everything from a North Korean hit to angry skateboarders to a robbery gone wrong to gay lovers to a local church. Obsessed kid at the wife's juku (too young?). Horrible crime. What is fascinating is the combination of organized and disorganized behavior. Its not easy for an amateur to get into a residential (admittedly isolated) house and kill 4 people, and get away undetected forever. Yet other aspects of the crime scene indicate a total nut job. It's like 2 different crimes rolled into one. I don't live there anymore, but its a damn spooky place. Victims RIP. And here's hoping they catch they guy, but he's probably crazy or killed himself.
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