Police in Yamaguchi Prefecture are searching for a man in connection with the deaths of five people whose bodies were found in four houses on Monday.
According to police, two houses, located 60 meters apart, partially destroyed by fire in a mountainous area of Shunan on Sunday night, Fuji TV reported. The remains of a 79-year-old woman was found in one of the houses, while the bodies of a couple in their 70s were found in the other burned-out house. The bodies of an 80-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman were found in two other houses 200 meters away. Fuji TV quoted police as saying they had been beaten and stabbed.
Police said a 63-year-old neighbor of one of the houses destroyed by fire has gone missing. A haiku was found pinned to the window of his home. It read: "Setting on fire -- smoke gives delight -- to a country fellow".
The area has bout 40 residences.
The man, whose name has not been made public, has a reputation in the village as a trouble-maker, reports said.
© Japan Today
20 Comments
Login to comment
Shankun
That's a great motive for a movie happening a real life! I feel sorry for the families of the bereaved families but... man!!! This better than any Hollywood action movie and it happened in real life! Watching the news covering this story is like opening a new chapter of a great book.
Unfortunately...
Scott Johnson
The rest of the people in this small community must be in sheer panic mode, but Japanese style of course. That is where they feel the danger, but pretend they don't to the point that they do nothing to protect themselves.
Shankun
The danger is now far away. And if you didn't see the scenery, that house, that 'poem' pinned in the window... Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CULRdociL8
timtak
The poem was not only that he enjoyed watching fires burn but that he lit them. "つけびして 煙り喜ぶ 田舎者" which means I think "A rural guy who lights fires and enjoys the smoke."
JeffLee
That's horrible. I hope they didn't burn to death, which is one of the most painful ways of dying.
Disillusioned
The headline should read, 'The police are searching for a serial killer!'
Cricky
A sick and mentally disturbed individual, shogani again. Someone must have noticed? And did nothing. That sums up society, shogani.
dmhondz
Whether they treat the 63 yr old neighbor as suspect or not, I hope they find him soon.
BurakuminDes
Rest in Peace to these old, innocent people. Let's hope they catch this psychotic serial-killer soon - I fear he will continue on his killing spree. Surely execution looms when they nab the evil killer.
ka_chan
Is the crime section getting stranger? What is happening?
konjo4u
The younger generation, 63 years or so.
Scott Johnson
Please contact the police since you have detailed knowledge of the killer/arsonist's whereabouts.
The prime suspect is a local resident who could be holed up close to home since home is the place he knows best. Further, whoever hit this community may well have it in for this particular community. I would not poop my pants if it was my community, but I sure as heck would not pass it off with "Meh. The perp must be a hundred thousand miles away by now" either.
Balefire
Seeing the place on TV, noting how remote it is, and seeing that the suspect left his vehicles behind, suggests that he may not have been able to get very far.
It has also been noted by several TV news stories that the poster/poem has been there for at least two years.
Very suspicious--and worrying for more than one reason--to me was a timeline shown on a program today (Miyaneya) indicating that one of the victims was interviewed by the police the night of the fire, and found murdered the next day.
I haven't heard or seen any mention of the suspect having been interviewed the night of the fire. In a very small community of eight households, one would think that he was, if he'd been around at the time. Very strange, and troubling. It seems that evacuating the survivors was a good idea.
sushilover
Seeing the place on TV, and all them poor country folk living in squalour, it reminded me of that old song "duelling shamisens", y'all.
Cortes Elijah
What a sick man to do such things (or woman).
Wouldn't it be freaky if the real killer was one of the "survivors" and he used that haiku (not sure how to spell it) as a weapon against a man he hated. He killed the owner of the house with the poem, making the police think (the owner of the house with poem) is in hiding after killing people. The real murderer is with the survivors...
Freaky right? That passed my mind a few times.
Uryu Hideo
That seems to be a little odd, Maybe the guy who went missing got killed by the real killer, If the Poem was there for 2 years, someone else might have seem it, and did all that, and then killed the guy, so everyone would think it was him... Hope the police find the guy who did that.
Balefire
It is of course possible that the missing guy is being framed by someone who is the real killer and posing as an innocent survivor. Maybe the guy they're looking for/suspecting is already a victim himself.
Apparently there was a fire in one of those houses a while back, and now the police are wondering if it was suspicious.
Right now, the guy they're searching for does seem suspicious, but it wouldn't be the first time that someone was wrongly blamed for a crime (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsumoto_incident) and essentially unjustly "lynched" in the press.
I hope that whoever he/she the criminal is, they're caught quickly.
FightingViking
Since the 63 year old man left both of his cars, maybe he wasn't planning on going so far but just far enough away to not be found too quickly, in order to commit suicide ? Maybe realizing the extent of his "deeds" he isn't/wasn't expecting to get away with "blue murder" and prefers to "take care" of his fate himself ? That is, of course, if he really IS the culprit.
Qamar
This looks like a very weird case...and wow, I'm still thinking I'm reading the cover of a Japanese TV series which I used to love a lot..pity it ain't :(
nandakandamanda
According to Sky News quoting the Yomiuri Shimbun, "He once boasted to neighbours that he would escape prosecution if he killed people because he is on medication".
http://news.sky.com/story/1119415/haiku-writing-serial-killer-hunted-in-japan