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Police in Machida, Tokyo, on Friday arrested a 30-year-old man on charges of kidnapping and confining an 11-year-old girl who went missing from her home in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, before turning up safe four days later at a koban (police box) 20 kilometers away in Chigasaki.
Police identified the suspect as Nobuo Takagi, who works as a systems engineer for an IT company. Police said he has admitted to the charge.
In a case that puzzled investigators, Michi Shinozaki had been playing with a friend at her home until 4 p.m. on Saturday Jan 11. After that, she went for a walk with her dog. When the dog returned home alone 40 minutes later, her father went out to search for her. He notified police at 6:40 p.m.
The girl showed up at a koban in Chigasaki at around 4 a.m. on Jan 15. The koban was empty at the time and the girl used the phone linked to police headquarters to call for help. She was unharmed, but tired. They asked her if she was hungry and she said no. Police told reporters that she kept saying she couldn't remember anything or she didn't know when asked where she had been for the past four days.
Michi had a medical checkup, but the results were not made public, fueling speculation that she might have been drugged. Since then, police said they had been interviewing her to try and shed light on what happened during those four days. Police said the only thing the girl told them was that a man she didn't know forced her into his car.
On Friday, police said that Takagi admitted putting the girl into his car and drove to his home where he confined her, Fuji TV reported. On some occasions, he said he took the girl to a restaurant.
Police said that surveillance camera footage of cars in the area where Michi disappeared led them to Takagi who was taken into custody at around 9 a.m. Friday.
© Japan Today
10 Comments
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Mirai Hayashi
Wow...he kidnaps a child and has the balls to take her out into public...what an idiot..
Argus Tuft
I'm very happy to read that the girl is OK but this story has really taken a turn into weird territory.
FizzBit
Only in Japan.
papigiulio
eh wut?
Not that it matters now, really glad the girl turned up safely.
CrazyJoe
I hope he's kept behind bars for a long time. I wonder if her emotional scars heal?
Latpoypoy
Thanks to big brother surveillance camera, and it is good that the girl is safe and hopefully recovering well from this event.
Tahoochi
....so why didn't they do this on the FIRST day, and not 4 days later when the girl shows up? Surely it doesn't take 4 days to go over surveillance camera footage for a specific area?
kaimycahl
@ Tahoochi Police said that surveillance camera footage of cars in the area where Michi disappeared led them to Takagi who was taken into custody at around 9 a.m. Friday.
....so why didn't they do this on the FIRST day, and not 4 days later when the girl shows up? Surely it doesn't take 4 days to go over surveillance camera footage for a specific area?
THERE NEVER DID THIS AT ALL, THE J-COPS ARE JUST TRYING TO TAKE CREDIT FOR FINDING THE GIRL, WHAT INFORMATION THE GIRL GAVE THEM MUST HAVE LED THEM TO WHERE HE LIVES AND BY SAYING THEY LOOKED AT SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS IS A WAY OF SAYING WE ARE WATCHING YOU GUYS! A BIG SCARE TACTIC FOR THOSE WHO THINK THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH SOMETHING MIGHT WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT!
Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land
I feel so happy for the parents to get their little girl back after 4 days missing. What a nightmare it must have been.
Dennis Bauer
Most important thing is that the girl is back alive with her parents. Now to get to the bottom of this.