Nara prefectural police say a 56-year-old nursing care worker from Yamatokoriyama City, whose body was found in a forest area on July 23, withdrew about 30 million yen from her bank account before she went missing on July 8.
Junko Sasaoka was found in a wooded area, Sankei Shimbun reported. She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and pants. Her body had started to decay.
Sasaoka's younger sister contacted police on July 15 after being unable to reach her sibling. The following day, Sasaoka's daughter, who lives apart from her mother, submitted a missing person's report to police.
Sasaoka worked at a nursing home for elderly people in Osaka Prefecture. She was last seen at work on the night of July 8.
Police said the cash withdrawn from the bank account has yet to be found and no money was found on the body. Her car was discovered in a supermarket parking lot in Yamatokoriyama City. Bloodstains inside the vehicle matched Sasaoka’s blood type, police said.
Police said they are looking for some men who frequently visited Sasaoka’s residence.
© Japan Today
38 Comments
Login to comment
thepersoniamnow
Whoever murdered this poor woman should get life. Hopefullythey find these evil people.
nandakandamanda
Hope they get caught, and given special time to reflect on their selfishness.
serendipitous1
Sounds like she was forced to withdraw the cash and then killed by the same person/people.
Erik Morales
As incomes in Japan stagger/decrease people get desperate for money. I hope her killer is found. But wealthy Japanese be on the lookout for scams!
Mark
30 million? or 3 million?
OssanAmerica
What country are you from.? You can wire $50,000 from US to JPN with no issues online and even more by going to the bank.
WilliB
Well, looks like they arrested a Cameroonian in connection with the murder. Could be related to one of these African marriage scam schemes that are going on.
Bob Fosse
lol
3RENSHO
"Police said they are looking for some men who frequently visited Sasaoka’s residence."
The most obvious implication being that 'some men' have committed the murder. Brushing aside all "No sheep Sherlock" comments then we are left to ponder the information missing from this brief article--what was the relationship between the 56-year-old care worker and 'some men'...
Commodore Perry
OssanAmericaToday 02:47 pm JST
For the $3000, have to show picture id to wire from Japan; other than that, yeah, no biggie.
Sven Asai
That’s pure theory, especially in a very consume oriented society like this. Just like always those strange calculations in the news, how super rich everyone of us could now be, if he only had bought a Bitcoin or an Apple share right at the beginning etc. lol Now, assumed you are right and she was one of very few who saved the hard earned bonuses, how much would you estimate the combined probability, that exactly that person runs in a similarly seldom murder case? Maybe, we would more often hit by a meteor shower or weekly win the lottery. lol
WilliB
gokai_wo_maneku
Depending on how she lived, that could simply be savings, plus some good investments. Remember at age 56 she had more than 30 working years under her belt. I dont see the point in speculation about where the vicim´s money came from.
Commodore Perry
zichiToday 05:08 pm JST
You probably already supplied your residence card to your bank last year when they started making requests for such.
WilliB
P. Smith
I was referring to the previous comments in the readers section here. Maybe you did not read them.
Commodore Perry
Junko Sasaoka was found in a wooded area, Sankei Shimbun reported. She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and pants. Her body had started to decay.
I was referring to the previous comments in the readers section here also.
No big deal.
Commodore Perry
zichiToday 06:30 pm JST
Yes; I declare it all. No problem as long as you let them know up front in the US.
Zaphod
Well, that should put the suicide theory to rest. Something more sketchy has been going on here.
gokai_wo_maneku
People here wonder why a health care worker could possibly have 30 million in her account. This money is most likely family savings achieved over several generations. This is common in Japan.
Robert Cikki
Something tells me the police will now focus primarily on the 30 million rather than solving the murder itself. Such as how she could have earned it, whether it was legally acquired, etc.
Commodore Perry
zichiToday 05:38 pm JST
I'm a Mizuho guy. I hate doing transfers--rates are horrible, so usually it is the suitcase transfer for me.
kaimycahl
@ thepersoniamnow
Whoever murdered this poor woman should get life. Hopefully they find these evil people. From what I read I don't think the lady was poor, withdrawing 30 million yen from her bank account before she went missing is not poor by any means. If anything it is very unfortunate that she ended up missing and her life, and the savings she had is now gone!
Yohan
For what do you need to carry 30 million yen in cash with you?
If you really have a transfer of a high amount always do it in a bank or post office from your account to the other, cashless - for example if you buy a new home, furniture or a car etc. Nowadays for your daily needs you need very little cash in your wallet, I and wife pay almost always by using our creditcards.
We never have more than yen 10.000 or 15.000,- in cash in our wallets.
Invoices like utilities or maintenance fees, income tax and national insurance are all collected from our banking accounts too.
Sven Asai
Seems still to be a developing and increasing interesting crime story. In that kind of job you usually won’t make savings up to 30mio. Or let’s say it in other words, if you had so much money you wouldn’t exploit yourself doing care work at the age of 56. Something’s smelling very strange. There’s surely much more to come.