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A couple in their 60s and their daughter were found dead at their home in Hanno, Saitama Prefecture, on Sunday morning. Part of the second floor of the house had also been destroyed by a fire.
Police said that around 7 a.m., they received a call from a neighbor reporting that a man was lying on the grass in front of the house, Kyodo News reported. The caller also said that shortly before, he had heard loud arguments from inside the house.
Another neighbor called 119, reporting flames coming from the second floor of the house.
Police said a man with what looked like a hammer was seen running from the house. He was dressed in black, wearing a black mask and carried a shoulder bag.
Police and firefighters went to the house and found the man collapsed, outside the front door, bleeding from wounds to his head and neck. Near the entrance, they found the man’s wife and daughter. All three were declared dead at the scene.
The fire on the second floor was extinguished by 9 a.m.
Police said all three had been beaten about the head with a blunt object, believed to be a hammer.
© Japan Today
22 Comments
garypen
Obviously not many facts in the article. But, I'm gonna go ahead and say the killer is either the ex-husband/boyfriend of the daughter or the deadbeat son of the older couple. I think there's a pretty good chance it's one of those, as opposed to a thief, co-worker, neighbor, or other relative.
Yossy-island
I don't think there is a country where murders don't happen, but Japan is a country where murders are especially rare. In Japan, the homicide ranking is 193rd out of 194 countries.
http://top10.sakura.ne.jp/WHO-VIOLENCE-HOMICIDERATE.html
Mr Kipling
This level of violence involves a very strong hatred.... I'm going for son or daughters husband/boyfriend/stalker.
BFPF1159
This is literally down the road from my house….
wallace
Shocking and horrific but does not change the fact Japan is one of the safest countries.
Stephen Chin
This is not a scene from a horror movie. This is real life horror.
cccatch
Update! they caught the guy, a 40 year old man
Jonathan Prin
Son or family member.
That sort of crime seems to develop a lot (hammer, fight in family house, fire...)
Strangerland
Any theory anyone ever has on JT is only ever correct by coincidence. It's not like enough data is put through the 3rd party media for anyone reading the few paragraphs on JT to be able to put together any kind of legitimate theory. Just a bunch of people who are essentially storytellers; they read whichever details actually made it to the media in Japanese and of questionable accuracy, then got translated into English again of questionable accuracy, and retrofit a "theory" as to what happened. The few times these theories turn out to be the same as what actually happened, it's essentially just coincidence.
My point being, don't feel bad about your "theory" being wrong. That's the norm here.
Lindsay
Too early to speculate who is responsible but there is no doubt it was a targeted attack and not random.
Fighto!
Very true - but this is hardly the time to boasting, in light of this awful tragedy.
Cards fan
I say it's not looking like it.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/8de32061376f9d3dc546842a0521306499cced8f
Mr Kipling
One eye witness said...
"I think it was a little after 7 o'clock. I heard a woman's scream."
(The people who live here) are foreigners. They seemed like nice people."
But no mention of this in official reports yet.
wallace
Fighto!
I wasn't boasting. Normally people would post how dangerous the county is when it isn't. Just keep it in perspective.
Serial killer mean more than one crime.
Fighto!
Shocking news to read - particularly so in this festive season.
Hopefully the police catch this serial killing madman - and soon - before more innocent lives are taken.
Chico3
Wow! On Christmas! What led up to this? How sad and horrible! RIP
Uchida
This is 4-5 minutes from my house. The helicopters were hovering overhead for what seemed like forever. The police came to our house around noon to ask the names of who lived here, phone numbers, kokuseki. They told us to stay inside and keep our doors and windows locked. They came back through the neighborhood at 1600 as we were going out to tell us they still hadn’t found the man and to stay vigilant. We have a number of cameras and a ring bell so they asked if we had seen anything suspicious. We left and made sure all the lights were on and the house was locked up. At 2230 we got an alert that the guy had been arrested.
Our neighborhood has had some drama this past year. A guy went into a house or some houses that were unlocked and stole money and things but apparently nobody realized it. When the guy got arrested for something else he told the police about the houses he had robbed here. They did the door to door stuff and told us to be vigilant with locking up. in September the Misguidai bus accident happened in Shizuoka (?) and the reporters were stalking the bus headquarters also 3 minutes away.
34 years here and although I still feel much safer than in my home country I admit I was scared today.
garypen
Looks like my original theory of ex-husband/boyfriend or deadbeat son was completely wrong. They arrested a neighbor who had vandalized the victims' car last year. So, it looks like the alleged murderer had a long-time grudge against that family. (Although, I suppose, he may have dated the daughter previously, or had some obsession with her. But, that's total supposition on my part, with no actual evidence to base it on.)
I am curious to what the police eventually find out was this alleged killer's motive, though. That's a pretty brutal way for any sane person to settle any kind of disagreement.
falseflagsteve
I find this incredibly distressing. Hopefully this isn’t a chap whose flipped his lid and goes onto more spree killings.
Shane Sommerville
I say son