crime

Police seek public’s help over Setagaya family murders in 2000

13 Comments

Police have renewed their appeal for any information from the public that might help solve the murders of a family of four in the house in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward 20 years ago.

On Saturday, police handed out flyers appealing for information at Seijogakuenmae train station, as they have done each year at this time, in the hope that someone will come forward with new information, Fuji TV reported. They also displayed a mannequin wearing clothes similar to what the killer is believed to have worn.

Mikio Miyazawa, 44, his 41-year-old wife Yasuko, 8-year-old daughter Niina, and 6-year-old son Rei, were found dead on the morning of Dec 31, 2000. Miyazawa's son had been strangled, and the other three had been stabbed to death. Fingerprints and other evidence in the home indicate the killer used the computer and ate ice cream after the attack on Dec 30, spending several hours in the house before leaving the next morning before dawn.

Approximately 280,000 officers have been involved in the case to date, and police have received more than 16,000 pieces of information from the public, yet the killer remains at large. There is a 20 million yen reward for information which leads to the arrest of the killer or killers.

A police spokesman said the department will never give up until the case is solved.

Despite extensive detective work focusing on the killer's clothing, accessories, weapons, and other circumstantial evidence such as the sand found on the clothing that the killer abandoned at the scene, police have not identified any suspects.

Following the murders, police deduced that the clothes, including a sweater, and knife left at the scene had been bought in Kanagawa Prefecture. Three kinds of powdered fluorescent dye were found on the trainers and bag left at the scene. In the pocket of the sweater, which had only gone on sale two months before the killings took place, traces of bird dropping, Japanese zelkova tree and willow leaves were found.

Police learned that 130 of those particular sweaters had been sold in Tokyo but have been able to only track down the owners of 12.

DNA analysis has revealed that traces of blood (type A) found at the scene not belonging to the family suggests that the killer has a mother of European descent, possibly from a country near the Mediterranean or Adriatic Sea. Analysis of the Y-chromosome has revealed that the killer's father is of Asian descent, with the DNA appearing in 1 in 4 or 5 Koreans, 1 in 10 Chinese, and 1 in 13 Japanese. He is believed to be about 170 cms tall and of thin build.

Anyone with any information is urged to call 03-3482-3829.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

13 Comments
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Sad, despite the extensive forensics work detailed in the latter paragraphs with this article, there have been no additional leads. By now, the killer will probably take his secret to his grave.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Sadly, it is a lost cause now.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

Police have already identified the suspect, a foreign-born male who has fled Japan back to his home country.

It has more to do with extradition possibility and politics.

世田谷一家殺人事件 21年めの新展開!警視庁が異例の実名出しで所在を追う「焼き肉店のアルバイト店員」

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/b363ba863fec6d1f5311e1149938b8079b144fa7

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

Our help?

What were they doing for 20 years what we can help with?

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

They can but keep trying. If the killer truly has fled abroad the more evidence they gather the stronger the case for extradition, if not then the more likely it will lead to his unmasking and conviction.

There is always hope, in a recent case in the US they traced a killer from a murder rape in 1956.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

The purchase of the knife before the crime indicates premeditation, but nothing else really makes sense. If the killer doesn't commit any more crimes, he might very well get away with it.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Some people say that for every 1 day that passes multiply it by 10 and that's how much longer it will take to find the killer which means he may never get caught.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

@noriaho Perhaps the killer isn’t a foreigner and is already in prison in Japan

Police have already identified the suspect, a foreign-born male who has fled Japan back to his home country.

It has more to do with extradition possibility and politics.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Perhaps the killer isn’t a foreigner and is already in prison in Japan

No. They would have his fingerprints then and would do a match or partial match to the prints left at the crime scene.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

noriahojanen

Police have already identified the suspect, a foreign-born male who has fled Japan back to his home country.

Thanks for the link, but according to the article, they suspect someone, but they still have not idea who that someone is.... so back to zero. As your article says:

迷宮入り事件に、ついに一筋の光が差そうとしているのだろうか。

0 ( +0 / -0 )

20 years is a long time for anyone to be of help, unless it is someone with direct knowledge of the crime.

The best computer forensics , if applied soon after the crime may have been able to provide some clues, when combined with other evidence could have resulted in a profile, and possible identity.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Even the most promising clues usually only lead to others.

So many corpses roll away unrevenged.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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