The case told today is the highest reward in Japanese history, and as of now, the Japanese police have given a bounty of up to 20 million yen to find clues to the murderer.
But more than 20 years have passed since the case, and the murderer has not yet fallen into the net. There have been many speculations about this, but none of them have been thoroughly confirmed. This case occurred in 2000 AD in the Setagaya massacre in Tokyo, Japan.
The Massacre
In 2000, a two-story townhouse was built next to Zushiya Park in Tokyo, Japan. One of the owners of the building, Kano Miyazawa, used to work as a consultant for a British company, while his wife, Yasuko Miyazawa, ran a cram school at home.
The couple has two children, an eight-year-old daughter Ina Miyazawa and a six-year-old son, Miyazawa Rei. They have lived here for ten years since 1990, and the family of four lives in harmony and harmony.
The villa they were in town was inhabited by Yasuko Miyazawa's mother and sister. However, later, my sister moved to England for work reasons, so only Taiko's mother was left in this house.
From the outside, the two villas appear to be connected, but in fact they are not connected inside.
Beginning in 1991, Zushigu Park next to the villa began to expand, and more than 30 households living here gradually moved elsewhere. By 1999, only four families, including the Miyazawa family, remained.
The Miyazawa family, which belonged to the Nail Family, initially refused to relocate, but for some reason they signed an agreement to relocate in March 2001.
But three months before they were ready to move, on the night of December 30, 2000, something suddenly happened to the family!
The next day of the scourge
The first person to discover the murder scene was Taiko's mother. At 10:00 a.m. on December 31, 2000, Taiko's mother was sitting in a needle felt at home.
Because usually at this time, her daughter Yasuko Miyazawa would bring the two children to her side and ask her to help take care of them, but today she did not see the figure of their mother and son for a long time.
The confused mother called her daughter's home twice, but no one answered.
In desperation, she could only choose to go to her daughter's house next door to check the situation. Around 10:50, she opened the door next door with her spare key.
However, probably because of the fright, Taiko's mother could not recall whether she directly pushed open the door or opened it with a spare key. She only remembers the moment she entered the door, she saw someone fall on the landing on the first floor.
When she walked over to look at it, she suddenly screamed in fright: the man in front of her was her son-in-law Miyazawa Kano. I saw him lying in a pool of blood, his whole head covered by drawers, his body slashed several times, and his flesh and blood blurred.
Shocked, Taiko's mother did not think much about it, anxious to confirm the safety of her daughter and child, she stepped over the body of her son-in-law and almost stumbled up the second floor.
As soon as I went up to the second floor, I saw that my daughter Taiko and granddaughter Ina had collapsed in front of the folding staircase leading to the third floor.
Granddaughter Ina knelt on the ground, and daughter Taiko pressed against Ina's back. Both men's faces had marks of being stabbed by knives, and they could no longer see the original form.
Seeing this, Taiko's mother panicked and dialed the police phone with trembling hands.
The scene of the crime
After receiving the report, the police quickly rushed over. However, the four bodies at the scene of the crime, even the experienced police, could not help but feel cold in the back.
The skull above Miyazawa's left ear had a 3-centimeter-deep notch, as if it had been directly inserted with a sharp blade, and the ring finger of his right hand was cut off, and there were more than a dozen knife wounds all over his body.
His wife, Yasuko Miyazawa, had her face damaged, her throat severed, and her neck stabbed several times, leaving only her bare white bones, which were very choking. The eldest daughter, Ina Miyazawa, was equally badly injured, and her face was also damaged with a knife.
In the bedroom on the third floor, there was blood left on the mother and daughter and ino Miyazawa's knocked-out teeth. In addition, the police also found the body of his youngest son, Miyazawa, in the bedroom on the second floor.
He was strangled to death on the lower bunk of the upper and lower beds, and no signs of struggle were found in the room. After examining the stomach residue of the corpse, the forensic doctor deduced that the victim's death was around 11:30 p.m. on December 30.
Police reasoned
After an investigation of the crime scene, the police deduced the perpetrator's crime. Two murder weapons were found at the scene, one of which was a lancet brought by the killer himself.
The other was Miyazawa's kitchen knife, both stained with blood, with a conspicuous notch in the lancet.
There are signs of trampling on the fence directly below the bathroom window on the second floor, as well as in the lawn. On the stairs on the first floor of the house, several intermittent shoe prints and blood stains were also found.
Cabinets and drawers were turned over in the house, and the killer seemed to be looking for belongings or creating the illusion of burglary.
The first aid kit at Miyazawa's home was opened, and police found Band-Aids and towels in the kitchen with the killer's fingerprints. In addition, the killer also tried to stop the bleeding with female physiological products.
Therefore, the police deduced that the murderer should have climbed in from the bathroom window on the 2nd floor, and after entering Miyazawa's house, he first went to the bedroom on the left side of the second floor and strangled his youngest son, Miyazawa Rei, who was six years old at this time, was asleep and had no chance to resist.
The murderer may have made some movements in the process, and Miyazawa was working in the study on the first floor at this time, he heard the sound and wanted to go upstairs to check, the two just collided in the stairs.
The murderer slashed Miyazawa with the lancet he was carrying, and blood spilled in the stairwell. During the hand-to-hand fight between the two, Miyazawa tried to take the lancet from the murderer's hand, but although he did not succeed, the murderer was also injured.
However, in the end, the murderer still had the upper hand, and several knives were slashed at Miyazawa Kano, and the injured victim fell down the stairs.
The murderer did not let him go, chased down the stairs and ended Miyazawa Kannan's life with a lancet. The lancet in the murderer's hand also appeared a gap.
At this time, the murderer had already killed the red eye, and he climbed up the folding stairs on the second floor to the third floor and slashed the sleeping mother and daughter with a knife.
At this time, the murderer found that the damaged lancet was not convenient to use, so he had to go back to the kitchen on the second floor to change a kitchen knife. One of the points of contention here is why the mother, Yasuko Miyazawa, chose to take her daughter downstairs.
The inference given by the police is that Yasuko Miyazawa mistakenly believes that the murderer has left, so she plans to go downstairs to find a bandage to stop the bleeding from her daughter. But when they walked down the stairs, they happened to meet the murderer who came out of the kitchen, and eventually the mother and daughter were brutally killed.
Seeing this, there must be people who are curious, Andyazawa's best option would be to close the folding staircase so that the murderer could not go up to the third floor.
But it is clear that the folding stairs for home use are designed for convenience, so whether it is upstairs or downstairs, it is easy to open the folding stairs.
Clues are like hemp
In addition to the aforementioned information about the scene, the police also released the following clues:
1. Fingerprints on site
The killer left more than 10 fingerprints at the scene of the crime. However, in Japan in 2000, only those who had left a case record were fingerprinted, so the police did not find a match in the fingerprint control system, and according to some reports, even the international criminal agencies did not get matched fingerprint information.
2. Blood tests
Through DNA testing of the killer's blood, the killer's father should be Asian and his mother is European Mediterranean. Therefore, the murderer is likely to be of mixed blood, but it is not excluded that his ancestors are mixed blood, and he is a pure Japanese.
3. Shoe prints left at the scene
The shoes worn by the killer were 27.5 centimeters in size and were branded as Shresinger in the United Kingdom, which were produced by a Korean company at the time and only sold in South Korea. However, it is not excluded that there is a possibility of online shopping or travel purchasing.
4. On-site clothing
The killer left a gray dust jacket, a soft-rimmed hat, a scarf, a Uniqlo glove, and a Shresinger sweatshirt at the scene. This sweatshirt is sold for only 10 pieces in Tokyo and is a very rare commodity. In addition to this, a fanny pack was left at the scene, and some yellow sand was found in it.
5. Black handkerchief
In addition to clothing and murder weapons, two black handkerchiefs were found at the crime scene, one of which had a 3-centimeter incision near the center of the handkerchief. The police deduced that according to the shape of the handkerchief, the murderer should be afraid that the blood would stain the handle of the knife and cause slippage, so he cut a cut in the handkerchief and inserted the handle of the knife to facilitate its use during the crime.
6. Internet records
In the computer browser on the first floor, there are two Records of surfing the Internet at 1 a.m. on the 31st and 10:05 a.m. the next day. The first time on the Internet, the murderer browsed the website of Miyazawa Kano and other scientific websites, which lasted more than 5 minutes; the second time on the Internet, the murderer tried to book a performance ticket for a show called "Four Seasons of the Troupe" online, but was unsuccessful, the process took more than 4 minutes, and then the murderer directly turned off the power.
Police extracted the killer's fingerprints on the mouse, but not on the keyboard. According to online records, it can be found that the murderer did not flee immediately after killing the Miyazawa family, but stayed at the scene of the crime for more than ten hours.
According to the information left at the scene, during these ten hours, the murderer ate two boxes of ice cream, drank a cup of oolong tea, went to the toilet once, and turned Miyazawa's home upside down, and very calmly waited until 10:05 a.m. the next morning to leave the crime scene without hurrying.
But on this point, the Japanese police released a new investigation report in 2014, claiming that the computer's second browsing record may only be caused by a malfunction, and the murderer did not stay at the scene for so long.
And when he left, he only took 150,000 yuan in cash from the drawer, and did not take the wallet and credit card at home.
7. Eyewitness
The victim's mother said that on December 25, a few days before the crime, a car was parked in front of their home. On December 27, a suspicious man was hovering near their home.
The murderer speculates
After the incident, although many clues were left at the scene, the police were disturbed and could not accurately track the murderer for many years. Therefore, there is also a lot of speculation about this case.
There is a theory that the killer is likely to be a Korean resident in Japan, because the shoes left by the murderer at the scene were only sold in South Korea. And Miyazawa's family has close ties to Korean religious organizations.
Speaking of which, Miyazawa and his wife, Taiko, met in a Korean church called the Immortal Church.
After the two gave birth to their youngest son, Miyazawa, the church asked them to join the church as well, but Yasuko Miyazawa refused. After that, they had a gap with religious organizations.
It is also said that the murderer is actually a high-IQ criminal, and even, he may be a professional killer. But I don't think so, because the killer left too many pointing clues at the scene.
In addition to a large number of fingerprints, the clothes with the blood of the killer's DNA were all left at the scene, and then there was the lancet used by the murderer, the blade was very thin and easy to break, and it was not suitable for murder. So this killer should not be a professional killer.
Based on the information from the crime scene and the police visits, I think it is very likely that the murderer of the Miyazawa family was motivated by revenge. Because the knife wounds on the corpse are too terrible.
Both mother and daughter's faces were damaged, their necks were severed, and all three members of the family, except for their youngest son, Miyazawa Rei, were covered with knife wounds. If the murderer did not have a vendetta against this family, why did he kill them so cruelly?
Near Zushigu Park next to the crime scene, there is a skateboarding field, where a group of skateboarders often play. The noise they made haunted the Miyazawa family all the time. Before the crime, someone saw Miyazawa Kano clash with them fiercely.
It is said that Miyazawa has always had a straight temperament, both in life and work. He never refused to work overtime, and if he was not satisfied with his work, he would quit his job.
Imagine if he and these skateboarding teenagers had said very excessive things in the process of arguing, and the teenagers were the age of flesh and blood, it would not be surprising to sow the seeds of hatred from then on.
Moreover, there is other corroboration on this point. The Jilong snow brand perfume found at the scene of the crime is very popular among skateboarding teenagers, and the sand found in the belt bag at the scene comes from California and is also related to skateboarding.
The killer's physical signs released by the police are 15 to 35 years old, and the height is about 175, and these characteristics are also very consistent with skateboarding teenagers.
Subsequent
More than 20 years have passed since this case, but the murderer has not yet fallen into the net, in fact, it is very likely that he has already left Tokyo.
In the latest clues released by the Japanese police, H, an employee of a yakiniku restaurant in Setagaya District, was suspected because H matched the killer's signs and was seen with a bandage on his hand the day after the crime.
However, too much time has passed, and the owner of the barbecue restaurant has already lost H's contact information, so this clue is also suspended.
But even so, the Japanese police did not give up the investigation, in addition, 100 days after the crime, someone found a statue of Jizo Bodhisattva near the scene of the crime, with the words six engraved on the bottom.
Police suspect that it is very likely that the murderer threw it here. The six fingers on the bottom of the bodhisattva statue are Miyazawa Rei, the younger son of the Miyazawa family, who was exactly 6 years old at the time of the accident.
Today, the Japanese police are still looking for information about the bodhisattva statue hidden here.
It is worth saying that because the perpetrators of this case have not fallen into the net, Japan abolished the statute of limitations for the death penalty caused by homicide and robbery in 2010.
In addition, the amount of the reward in this case has also increased from the initial 3 million yen to 20 million yen.
Today, the Metropolitan Police Agency of Japan publishes the latest developments of the case on its official website every year to show its determination to solve the case. Every year on December 30, they go to the scene of the crime to hold a flower laying ceremony, bow to the deceased and apologize, to comfort the spirit of the Miyazawa family in heaven.
Well, this case will be mentioned here first, and the full video version can be viewed here.