"Hello, can you take a picture for me?"
On August 13, 1972, Keiko Inoue, a young woman, traveled alone in the Kirisen Onsen Scenic Area in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. While playing in the scenic spot, she asked tourists on the road to take pictures of her. But no one could have imagined that these travelers were the last people Keiko Inoue had come into contact with during her lifetime.
Among this group of photographers, there is a pair of eyes hiding behind the camera shutter, probably looking maliciously at the single woman in front of them...
A wonderful journey to A Paradise, who could have imagined the ending?
Located in the mountains of western Gunma Prefecture, Japan, The Cloud Hot Springs are named after the clouds. It was one of the most famous hot springs and summer resorts in Japan during the Meiji era. Hirobumi Ito, Shu Katsukai, Congdu Saigo, Akiko Seno, and Ruko Koda. In its heyday, there were 4 hot spring inns and 20-30 villas.
However, with the development of nearby resorts such as Isobe Onsen and Karuizawa in Nagano Prefecture, as well as the continuous severe landslides in Kirichi Onsen in 1896 and 1910, most of the hot spring hotels and villas were washed away, and only the remains remained. The remaining "Jintang Building" can continue to operate. A series of unfortunate events have gradually transformed Kirizumi Onsen from a nationally famous hot spring shrine into a private place for the citizens of Gunma Prefecture.
In August 1972, Keiko Inoue, a young office worker living in Isezaki City, eastern Gunma Prefecture, had planned to go on a vacation with her mother and brother at Kinyukan on the onsen on August 12-13 (weekend), but she had to go to Kinyukan on August 12-13 (weekend). Unfortunately, my mother and brother had their own affairs before departure and had to cancel the trip. Keiko Inoue, who loves to travel, does not want to spoil the fun, but still maintains the original plan and carries her luggage alone.
She took a train west from Isezaki City, where she lived, to Yokogawa Station, the closest train station to Kiritsuki Onsen, and then waited for a shuttle bus to Theoyoukan. After waiting for half a day on the bus, Keiko Inoue suddenly had an idea: just walk from Yokokawa Station to Kanedo Restaurant! She might have thought that she had been to Kirichi Onsen a few times before. Judging from the time of the car, if she goes up the mountain, it should not be too far, right? That way, you can also slowly explore the scenery along the way.
Relative location map of Isesaki City, Yokogawa Station, and Kiriji Onsen
The young woman's final journey in life
She asked the station staff about the distance from Yokokawa Station to kirizumi onsen Kanetokan, and the staff changed their faces: "From here to Kiritsuki Onsen?" What a joke, I didn't walk for 3 or four hours, it was too late! And the high heels you wear are not convenient for walking! He persuaded Keiko Inoue that there were few people on the road, and for safety reasons, she should wait for the shuttle bus to pick her up.
Keiko Inoue listened to the staff and dismissed the idea of walking to Kirizumi Onsen. But she became very popular and immediately went to a nearby store to buy sneakers and prepare to relax for a walk for the rest of her trip. After waiting for more than an hour, the shuttle bus finally arrived, and Keiko Inoue successfully boarded the shuttle bus and went to Kanedokan to check in.
The next day, Keiko Inoue got up early, and after breakfast at the hotel, asked the hotel staff to take pictures of her in front of The Goji Onsen, and then prepared to check out around ten o'clock. 'Bell. But this time, instead of taking the hotel shuttle, she chose to walk down the hill on her own.
At 1 p.m., keiko Inoue was resting at the "Ninja Pool", about 800 meters from Kirizumi Onsen, according to the testimony of several witnesses, and asked someone to help her take pictures in front of the ninja waterfall. Pond.. At two o'clock in the afternoon, a family drove away from Wuji Hot Spring. After driving about two or three kilometers away from Wuji Onsen, I saw Keiko Inoue walking down the mountain alone. They even invited her to ride down the hill. It was also rejected. This was the last time Keiko Inoue appeared in front of people.
Can't wait for Keiko Inoue to return home to inoue's home, and it feels like the situation is different. Keiko's father, led by Keiko, gathered his neighbors, relatives and friends to set up a private search team and went alone to the Wuji area to look for people.
Google map the path between Yokogawa Station and Kiriji Onsen
Blood-stained hot spring resort! Caught in the mystery of murder in the fog of five miles
On the evening of August 16, a private search team found a bloodied female body in a dam workhouse near Wuji Hot Springs. At the time of death, a large amount of blood gushed out, dyeing the wooden planks of the corpse red, and this woman was Keiko Inoue.
Why did Keiko Inoue come here? Who hit her so hard?
Photo of the crime scene and Keiko Inoue published in the gunma prefectural newspaper Shangmao Shimbun on August 17, 1972 Photo credit: "Shangmao Shimbun",
According to a forensic autopsy at Gunma University, Keiko Inoue was stabbed 24 times. The time of death may have been the afternoon of August 13. The fatal injuries were stabbed in the heart and three ribs were broken. It can be seen that the murderer made a knife. Powerful force. In addition, judging from the "defensive wound" caused by the knife in her left hand, it is conceivable that she must have experienced a fierce struggle before she died.
Such a tragic murder suddenly occurred in the silent countryside. The local police quickly set up the "Wujishan Women's Murder Investigation Command" to conduct large-scale investigations of the people who were active in Wujishan, including dam workers, fishermen, tourists, etc. Hotel staff tried to sweep up Keiko's itinerary after leaving the Jintang Restaurant at 10 a.m. on August 13, and searched for relevant evidence around the factory area.
But the inmates seem to have planned ahead and didn't leave much of a tool for the crime. In addition, on the day of the incident, all the dam staff returned to their hometowns to celebrate the Obon Festival. At that time, most of the tourists who went to Wuji Hot Springs were family tourists, and the hotel staff also had alibi. Police turned their attention to the fishermen who were operating in the fog zone at the time, but in the absence of clear evidence, the search hit a bottleneck.
Police had to investigate what Keiko Inoue had left at the scene in an attempt to find clues. The police found a camera in the items left by Keiko Inoue, so they rinsed out the negatives in the camera and tried to restore Keiko Inoue's footprints from the photos of tourists and the testimony of hotel staff and tourists.
Pictured here is a photo taken by Keiko Inoue in Shinobuchi before her death Image source: Mainichi Shimbun, October 15, 1977, Tokyo Yukan 4th edition.
Hairy last photo
Keiko Inoue took a total of 5 photos in the Kirishima area. Of the first four photos, the first and second were taken near the Golden Pavilion, and the third and fourth were taken in front of two waterfalls, one of which was a man. Another pond waterfall identified by the hotel owner is Kongo Waterfall, which is also located in the picture of The Jiji Hot Spring. The location of the fifth photo remains a mystery: it was taken of her standing in a bamboo forest, but the police have not been able to find a location that matches the photo in the Wuji area.
What is even more puzzling is that compared with the typical personable travel photos in the past, Keiko Inoue stands stiffly in the bamboo forest, expressionless, as if detached from the body. A mysterious mist hung beneath her feet. Whether the photo is supernatural or not, Keiko Inoue's strange expression in the photo has already aroused public discussion: Did she already know that she was going to have an accident while taking the picture?
Not the original photo, the fifth photo simulation photo made by a Japanese villager, for reference only
Who took the photo?
By comparing the testimonies of hotel staff and passengers along the way, the police can at least piece together the whereabouts of Keiko Inoue on the afternoon of August 12-13, and can also confirm that the first and second photos were taken by hotel staff. 4 or 5? The family who invited Keiko Inoue to hitchhike said they didn't take pictures of her. Who took it? Could this man be the murderer?
On August 19, a man who claimed to live in Shimokitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, contacted Makoto (a local gunma prefecture) saying he helped Keiko Inoue take photos next to a waterfall. He said that on the afternoon of August 13, he went fishing with friends in Shinobu Pond and met Keiko Inoue, who asked him to take pictures for him. Originally, he pretended not to take pictures, but Inoue said, "It's very simple to press the shutter." He helped Inoue press the shutter twice.
Let's not talk about why pressing the shutter twice, the photos taken are different waterfalls. Shangmao News soon found out that there was no such person as "Yoshida Ishida"! His name and address are fake. Did he really take pictures of Keiko Inoue? Why testify with a false identity?
At that time, because many forensic and investigative techniques were not yet widespread, such as DNA testing and surveillance, and Wuji Onsen was located in a remote mountainous area of Gunma Prefecture, it was difficult for the police to find out the truth. Comprehensively grasp the personnel who were active in the Wuji Mountains at the time of the crime. Just like the name of the crime scene, Wuji was trapped in the fog of five miles, and in 1987, the statute of limitations ended retrospectively. Since then, Keiko Inoue's death has become an eternal unsolved case, and there is almost no possibility of solving the case.
However, that doesn't stop people from continuing to explore the mystery, and they'll continue to talk about the various possibilities of the case, especially those creepy photos. Who took those pictures, and why is there such a strange fog? Do you have an answer?