A 5-year-old girl, who died after being found unconscious and naked on a roadside in Togane, Chiba Prefecture, on Sunday afternoon, was spotted by several people around the crime scene prior to her death, police said Tuesday.
Yukimaro Narita, 5, was found on the street around 12:26 p.m. She was naked and her clothes were found at a car park about 100 meters from the crime scene.
According to police investigations, Yukimaro went missing after she left her mother's workplace, a hospital, for her friend's home Sunday morning around 10:30. Her mother had taken Yukimaro to the hospital on Saturday as she was on the night shift, police said. She was seen walking along the street near the hospital shortly after 10:30, but police said she never visited her friend who wasn't at home that morning.
Yukimaro came back to the hospital around 11 a.m., asking a hospital staff member when her mother would finish work. She was last seen leaving the hospital around noon, according to police.
The next time Yukimaro was seen was when her body was found on the street about 300 meters from the hospital.
Police said that Yukimaro was strangled and that she had a bruise on her arm, indicating that she may have been held in a tight grip. Police believe she may have been grabbed by somebody, forced into a car and taken away before being brought back.
Police are appealing to the public for any information and on Tuesday released photos of Yukimaro and the clothes she was wearing.
According to police, there have been several reports about suspicious individuals in the area so far. A naked man was spotted at a nearby park in April, while another man chased female staff leaving a dental clinic.
© Wire reports
46 Comments
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memyselfI
Very sad !!!! The man or woman who did this is clearly mentally ill. I hope this little girl wasn't raped. Very scary!!! It's getting dangerous for children walking home. I think the mother is a single parent too. Just like the Fukuoka Park killing. But, why is this child walking home alone ? Where is the father ? Does this child have grandparents ? It's even dangerous leaving a child at home in the house. Children like to explore especially 5 years old. What was the mother thinking ? This is not the first time this child walked alone. It's seems to me this child has been walking alone frequently. I would never let my kid walk alone or whatever.
noborito
5 years old and left to roam the streets. Japan isn't safe. Very sad that probably something really really bad happened to her. Makes me sick to think how really sick this country is.
memyselfI
Does the mother of this child have a sister/brother or a family member to watch this child ? I don't want to blame the mother. But this is stupid. This crime is partially her fault. She should be charged with child neglect or child abuse.
smartacus
This case is really bizarre. Where's "CSI's" Grissom when we need him? Apart from the appalling lack of judgement by the mother in letting her 5-year-old daughter wander about town by herself, I can't quite visualize understand what might have happened.
I find it hard to believe that a pedophile just happened to be driving along, saw the girl, somehow talked her or forced her into his car, drove off somewhere, did what he did, then drove her back, dumping her and her clothes onto the street ... all in the space of 30 minutes, and nobody saw anything.
Why would he even bring her back to the spot where he grabbed her? Also, I don't think sickos like this just go on the prowl. They usually stalk their targets and prepare well in advance.
I wonder what really occurred
memyselfI
Does the mother have common sense ??? Does Japan have daycare ? The govenment need more child services,especially for working mothers. If I was a rich man. I would start some kind of program or 24 hour day care. Crimes like this could have been avoided. Child killers and weird people are prevalent here in Japan.
DanielM
When the japanese people finally stop to treat sex predators/hentais with velvet gloves??? Wake up Japan, its about time !!
beavis
Gee. These two are only qualified as suspicious?
DanielM
"According to police, there have been several reports about suspicious individuals in the area so far. A naked man was spotted at a nearby park in April, while another man chased female staff leaving a dental clinic."
As for me, this was a clear sign something bigger was to come? Where was the police to control the area? too busy?
Dennis Bauer
it seems that unsupervised playing and going to school is at an end in Japan. i hope they catch the culprit R.I.P little Angel -__-
serindipity
I hope they get him or her soon before it happens again.
blvtzpk
When someone points an error in your reports, as I did earlier, wouldn't it be nice to thank the preson (as you do sometimes) rather than just delete the post that pointed out the error?
fatloser
Trace the last 30 minutes of the mother. She should be the prime suspect until her guilt is disproven. The glory of bing a single mother ends with the handout from society. A child requires unlimited amounts of attention. Maybe she killed it because she wanted her freedome again.
Dogdog
Normally I would agree, but per head, there are a lot of Japanese guys walking around with pedo ideas in their heads, fed by anime, porn and manga. However their control of these impulses in the public arena is what makes Japan safe.
Still the chances of a little girl meeting one in the solitude of a dark night are pretty high in Japan.
happyface
so sad. a 5-yr old shouldn't be walking alone in the streets. i hope they catch the criminal.
noborito
By the way, about being naked. Setagaya (Kinuta park) has naked people in it all the time. I used to notify the police (well only 3 times). The police told me that it was not too strange and didn't even investigate. They seem to think it was normal behavior to have people walking around the park naked. Anyway, keep your kids on a short rope people. Japan isn't as safe as they try to believe. Ostrich here has his head in the sand.
outofmydepth
with the naked man and the person chasing women - you`d think that the area would have "beefed up" patrols. as mentioned above - these two episodes are beyond "suspicious!!!!!!"
CavemanLawyer
Please stop wasting the time of the police. We were all born naked, shower naked, some sleep naked and if most people are like me, could be buck naked in 15 seconds flat if I felt the urge. Walking naked in the park is odd and technically illegal, but so are a lot of things.
You have far more to fear from people fully clothed, and considering the time of day, the perp here surely was when his crime began and ended.
--Cirroc
USARonin
It's good that Japan is a civilized country and has the death penalty.
If the murderer is caught - and if it ain't the mother - this guy's gonna swing.
Good.
USAR
romulus3
Its completely unacceptable to let a 5 year old child walk the streets alone. I have utter contempt for this lousy excuse for a mother. She failed her child in the worse way possible.
nath
There's a long tradition of leaving pre-school children to wander the streets on their own - you must have seen on TV that thing where they send the kid to the shops alone to do some shopping, often followed by hidden cameras. The poor kid almost always gets lost and bursts into tears eliciting a chorus of laughs and "kawaii"s from the studio audience. Basically, it's not thought of as a big deal here to let a 5 year old walk around alone, no matter how distressing the experience is for the child. It's supposed to be character forming. Unfortunately, the streets aren't safe enough for that these days, but obviously many parents are having trouble keeping up with the times.
BBLeo
This is a great concern regarding protection of children. Child in this age should be under supervision, and not wondering on the streets. Law will have to change to protect youngsters. Hope that cops nab this maniac soon and hang him high. 'WHAT ELSE SUCH PERSON DESERVE?' But if suspect is mentally defected than he should be in mental Institution. 'CAN ANYONE TELL ME, WHAT PLEASURE CAN YOU GET FROM FIVE YERS OLD? 'THERE'S THE RUB : 'MENTALLITY!'
CavemanLawyer
Amazing how many out there cannot separate fantasy from reality. Scary even.
--Cirroc
CavemanLawyer
Alright. Alright. All posts blaming pervs, pedos and anime here are premature. We still do not know who did this or why.
We just had a distraught mother kill her own little boy, and about ten years ago we had a mother a killed her neighbor's two year old because of frustration with the mother.
Sensationalism, hype and witch hunts are as dangerous and useless now as they ever were.
--Cirroc
fatloser
The murder of a child by his mother last week hasn't changed the myopic mentality of posters here. The mother should be the PRIME suspect. Who else could approach a child at midnight without scaring her into screaming. The removal of her clothes is a red herring or a false clue.
cleo
fatloser -
Twelve noon, not twelve midnight.
smartacus
fatloser
In this case, how could it be the mother? She was working in the hospital, wasn't she?
But the case is certainly a strange one.
CavemanLawyer
Can you produce any witnesses to prove that claim? Can they give us times they actually witnessed the mother working?
--Cirroc
smartacus
CavemanLawyer
I don't have to produce any witnesses. I'm sure the police will look into the mother's whereabouts. But I subscribe to the innocent until proven guilty theory and caution you and other readers not to let your imagination run away with you.
fatloser
They are looking for naked men and men with masks in white cars. The child had bruises on her arm. Maybe mommy did it or maybe a psycotic woman whose child was unable to get into the right schools did it. It's an investigation-everyone should be a suspect. If the police only look for naked men in the park and men in general they leave out half the adult population. Women murder children-it's a fact. They sometimes try to make it look like a sex crime. Women KILL children. In an investigation everyone should be a suspect in the beginning. That includes the mother-nursing staff and patients male and FEMALE. The MOTHER who MURDERED her son in Fukuoka told police a strange man had asked his name the week before. She KILLED her own son. Why don't more posters even give it a moments considereation in this case. Her arm is grabbed tightly,yet no one reports a scream. Her moth was covered by a stranger not wanting to draw attention to themself or by the mother not wanting to draw attention to herself---outside the hospital caring for her errant child.
Bento
"The glory of being a single mother ends with the handout from society"?"Maybe she killed "it"...we are talking about a human here. In return for the unlimited attention the child deserves you get trust and love. Truly civilized societies dont use killing as a punishment. Just suppose for a moment it was the mother..wouldnt it be more beneficial to find out exactly what drove her to this act rather than just condeming and then forgetting..crimes like this always happen for some reason,no matter how crazy this reason may appear it is real to the perpetrator, find the reasons and eliminate them..you might end up with fewer victims in the long run..of course that would take perhaps more effort than some of the armchair sages would be prepared to devote,if you cant be bothered well...
LFRAgain
And then there's the third option: Find out why these criminals commit such horrific deeds. Delve deep into their childhoods, explore their experiences growing up, analyze the pressures they faced that may have driven them to do something so wildly outside of social norms, and take that data, analyze it, and develop some sort of system to ensure that others don't follow the same twisted path.
Then execute the sick S.O.B.
Works for me.
stanoue
It's funny - in a Western style article reporting these types of details, it would also state whether the girl appeared to have been sexually assaulted or not - I mean it can be pretty easy to work out for a 5 year old. Is it not standard to give that information to the press here?
sangetsu
I live only 100 meters from where the girl's body was found, and I'm still in shock over the whole situation. I've always thought of Togane as a quiet and crime free place. My only complaints about the place so far have been the noisy scooters which the teenagers around here love to ride. There are many children in the area, as there are several schools nearby. It wasn't at all unusual to see young children walking around by themselves, though that's all changed now. I truly hope they find the person responsible and punish him accordingly.
sangetsu
LFRAagain "And then there's the third option: Find out why these criminals commit such horrific deeds. Delve deep into their childhoods, explore their experiences growing up, analyze the pressures they faced that may have driven them to do something so wildly outside of social norms, and take that data, analyze it, and develop some sort of system to ensure that others don't follow the same twisted path."
One isn't always the result of one's upbringing. There's nothing I dislike more than listening to a defence attorney digging up a defendant's past in order to justify or in any way excuse criminal behaviour. Some people are stupid, others are genuinely evil, and both types deserve punishment. Punishment will teach the stupid, and hopefully restrain the evil ones among us.
pizzaboy
noborito:
alright, then tell us where it IS completely safe in the world for a 5 year old to "roam the streets" on their own, I dare you.
pizzaboy
LOL
pizzaboy
pizzaboy
sangetsu:
yes, and usually that's a result of their upbringing and traumatic events they experienced etc. In essence, you just agreed with LFRAgain.
Philmoscowitz
wow, letting a 5 year old girl wander the streets alone? that's just stupid! is the mother single?---is that why the girl was with her at the hospital? of course it's hard for single working mothers, but even then it seems irresponsible to let the girl go off on her own.
DBC
RIP little one. I bet she was beautiful.
CavemanLawyer
I was simply pointing out to you the fact that it is still possible the mother did it. You said she could not because she was at work. Faith that the police actually verified that she was in fact working is not very good proof. Witnesses would be better proof and the police have not told us there are any.
I have not contradicted the principle of "innocent until proven guilty". I think you may have focused too much on the word "innocent" while forgotten about the "proven guilty" part. Of course the mother cannot be said to be guilty at this time, but that does not mean she should not investigated.
--Cirroc
fatloser
Yes, children can be beautiful when they are brought up by caring parents. But when neglected and uncared for they might not be very fun to be around. How can the mother be a nurse at work and a mother at the same time? Wouldn't you think it might be stressful. Wouldn't it cause bad feelings between the other nurses, administrators and patients?
WilliB
fatloser:
Actually, the idea of stay-home-mom dedicated only to kids and making dinner is a relatively new idea, historically. Go a few generations back and you´ll find that everybody in the family had to work, while kids just kept popping up tagged along and started helping as they got bigger. My own grandma had 9 kids, and she was working on the farm. This women working in her parents hospital, with grandparents around and the kid running about is closer to the traditional model than the Norman Rockwell painting of a small core family that we sometimes imagine is ideal.
fatloser
But she wasn't employed by a hospital. If she's taking care of her child there she isn't working. It is bound to cause friction.
LFRAgain
If it's the mother's parent's hospital, I don't think it's going to cause much friction. In fact, this kind of arrangement is closer to traditional Japanese families that own a business of some sort. Having the children and grandchildren around isn't all that unusual.
Molenir
Ya know, I'm kind of wondering if the woman has a boyfriend. If the guy feels that the girl is interfering between them, wouldn't be the first time I've heard of something like that happening... Not that that is the case, just a thought. I'm sure the cops have already checked that out though.