crime

Mother of murdered girl releases comments after funeral in Chiba

42 Comments

Taeko Narita, 37, whose daugther Yukimaro, 5, was murdered in Tokagane City, Chiba Prefecture, last Sunday, made her first public comments on the case after the funeral on Thursday.

In a letter to media, Narita said: “I have never imagined that I would have to say goodbye to my daughter like this. Although she lived only five years, she was loved by everyone and her life was full of happiness. Now, I just regret I couldn't do a lot more for her as her mother.

“I can't stop asking myself why did this have to happen to my daughter. I am angry and frustrated because the killer has not been caught, but I know that even if he is found and apologizes, Yukimaro will never come back. I just freeze with horror when I imagine the suffering and terror that she must have felt in those final moments."

Narita urged authorities and the community to provide a safer community for children. "What we can do for Yukimaro is make our community safer for children through cooperation among police, media and local residents."

She concluded her remarks by saying: "I really appreciate all the concern and support from the bottom of my heart.”

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42 Comments
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I totally agree with DOGDOG...spot on

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What day and the time did this happen ? I think the day and time is most important. If I was the police I would do a house to house interview with everyone in a 5 mile radius of the crime scene. I the killer could be a unemployed man.

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I am in total agreement with Blue Tiger, blimey

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I am sorry that this woman and her family is suffering.....but I place much of the blame on her. How could she let her 5-year-old go off by herself? When I was 5, I was allowed to go one place by myself: the yard around the house. If I went anywhere else, it had to be either with parents or with someone my parents trusted and knew. I am sorry, and I grieve for this little one's death; I teach a hundred like her every week at a yochien and hoikoen. This was a tragedy, and I hope the killer gets locked away for the rest of his life, if not given the chair. However, this mother's allowance of her daughter to go and walk around the neighborhood by herself is symptomatic of an endemic problem here in Japan, and if parents don't wise up, and realize that, yes, even in smaller burghs like Togane, Chiba, there are sickos who will hurt their children, we will continue to see tragic stories like this.

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moonbeams and dogdog,

Could you please explain to us the relationship between sexualization of anyone or anything and murder? I am not seeing the connection there or with this case, badly as you two seem to want there to be one.

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I am moved by the mothers anguish, she has to take full responsibility for this tragedy though. Recently there have been many stories of careless parenting going on in the news. I can only hope that others learn from these mistakes.

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My heart goes out to the girls family, but why would anyone leave their 5 year old daughter walk all alone to someones house? Daylight or not.

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XRC: If it meant that those who would do such crimes can be prevented or quickly apprehended, yes, I'd have a GPS chip 'installed', why, because I'll never do anything I'd need to hide.

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XRC: My question was direction at human society, not a specific region. Plus that kind of emotional response is not going to produce anything other than blust and blunder. Other posters have mentioned the sexualisation of children. I'd argue that the sexualisation of children is a major problem in many socities, namely in Europe and North America, it is certainly not unique to Japan --regardless of 'degree'. Let's not quibble 'degrees' for now. Let's get some fundamentals down.

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Dogdog is right on.

Yes, these crimes happen everywhere, but in Japan it is socially acceptable to have comics featuring rape of children.

Children need to stop being sexualized. Look at the covers of the major manga weeklies. Many feature teenage girls in bikinis. 17, 16, 15, 14

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now want to add Japan to the way we see things...come on give me a break!

They could start by stop sexualizing little girls and grow a pair on a few more so called men in this country so they start seeing girls and woman as people like themselves, rather than objects for their violent rages

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Yes, we are all perfect and the countries we come from are the greatest (weapons dealers, drug & human trafficking) yet we now want to add Japan to the way we see things...come on give me a break! Do we implant chips into every human now!

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"what is there then that we can do as a society to stop this kind of crime(?)"

An excellent question! Well, everyone could live as I do, always being kind to others and never cheating or stealing or hurting or killing people...

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Right then. The death penalty does not deter, neither does life imprisonment, what is there then that we can do as a society to stop this kind of crime; or are we destined to be ever plagued by the death of innocent people from opportunist murderers?

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moonbeams -

She was suffocated. Her clothes were in a supermarket shopping bag, thrown under a car 100 m away. Hard to imagine she'd take all her clothes off, put them in a bag, throw the bag away, walk 100 m and then collapse.

It's reported that fingerprints have been found on the bag.

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Forgive my ignorance. Has the cause of death been reported?

I read that her body had no external injuries. Is it not possible that the girl had a heat stroke from a prolonged walking under the sun, took off her clothes and then collapsed?

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Also nobody in Japan ever challenges someone who looks suspicious. Like "You don't live around here, are you looking for something" or "Are you lost, can I help you?".

That's because they all look the same! And, they all look in the opposite direction. The best way NOT to get noticed is to scream for help!

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Gotta agree with gyouza on this one. Although there is a lot of neglect and just bad parenting going on in Japan these days, this just doesn't seem to be the case regarding Yukimaro's mother. Again, J-cops are not doing their jobs when a kid can get snatched from infront of her mother's work place in broad daylight in less than 30 minutes (30 minutes from snatch until discovery of the body - that's really fast!). Also nobody in Japan ever challenges someone who looks suspicous. Like "You don't live around here, are you looking for something" or "Are you lost, can I help you?".

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It scares the crap out of me to think parents in this country are not fulfilling their obligations as parents and still think that Japan is a safe country.

I agree - whose kids (maybe adults now) are perpetrating these crimes? How can you allow your kids to grow up to become a monster? One hell of an obligation.

I watch my kids carefully, but it can't be done all the time - and hey, have these kids not got the right to enjoy freedon on the streets? The issue is not Yukimaro's mother here - she is a victim.

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It scares the crap out of me to think parents in this country are not fulfilling their obligations as parents and still think that Japan is a safe country.

I do not think you could show me any statistics proving Japan is so much less safe than it used to be.

I guarantee you will find crime against children going all the way back to whenever records were kept, even if that is all the way back to the Kamakura period, if only you find those records.

A tremendously important reason that Japan remains relatively safe is because the Japanese do what they do. Change something like that and you may get a side effect you did not expect. For example, if fewer kids are walking around, that could translate into less awareness of those who do on the part of good people in the community, even people like you who are just driving by.

We have more reporting on these things these days. That does not make it a trend. We should not over-react.

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In the middle of nowhere last night, I saw a high school girl walking home. It was 10PM, and she's wearing the usual white shirt and short skirt. In the middle of nowhere. Had she been my daughter, I think I'd consider her a tad important enough to want to go and pick her up instead of letting her walk home alone in the dark, in the middle of nowhere. It scares the crap out of me to think parents in this country are not fulfilling their obligations as parents and still think that Japan is a safe country.

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Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the girl walked to the friend's house but no one was home so she walked back to the hospital. Staff saw here at 12:00 and the body was found about 30 minutes later. In that case she was in the general area of the hospital when she was abducted.

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Sad. I feel for the mother...it was probably routine or a non-issue to let her daughter walk to her friend's house that was nearby. It just happened that on that particular day there was a predator waiting. We will not know how much of an issue letting go alone is, as the killer could be someone she has known and trusted...

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This story is all well and good that the mother has enough courage to make a public address, BUT where is the joker responsible? This kid was nabbed/attacked in broad daylight mid-morning on a Sunday. Somebody must have seen something! I can only imagine how distraught the parents are.

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The idea of kiddy fiddling murderers not being caught is rather troubling.

timorborder, do you know something we don't? I have not heard the girl was "fiddled" as you so quaintly put it, so please leave your dark imagination out of this.

--Cirroc

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This poor mother have huge hole in her heart for ever. Lawmakers in Japan should be more serious, and start to think about their young generation. All we can hear is about 'Political corruptions' and how they can stay in power. Even so, there is partly fault of the mother, but it doesn't conclude that child should be murdered. Certainly many mothers would perhaps learn a lesson from this tragedy, but keep in mind that it could happen over and over again to someone else. People with mental ilness should be in institutions. 'THERE'S THE RUB: PARENTS NEED WATCH OVER THEIR CHILDREN'

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“What we can do for Yukimaro is make our community safer for children through cooperation among police, media and local residents.” Take care of your kodomo's, nobody will congrat u if you children can take the metro alone far away or if she/he know how to cross the street without help, trust me!, that just happen in tv programs, is not kawaii to see a kodomo cry or die because she/he has a stupid parents...

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Romulus3:

A bit cold dude. I agree letting 5 yos roam the streets by themselves is stupid but everybody has the "it-will-never-happen-to-me" attitude. Problem is the lessons learned part of this story is really tragic.

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At the very least I suspect this lady viewed her daughter only as a burdensome accessory, which quickly depreciated in value when the poor little girl started getting up and walking around on her own

And you base that on what? The fact that she had to work to support her daughter, and took the girl into work with her? (she worked as a nurse at the hospital run by her own mother. ) Would you rather she stayed at home and lived on welfare?

I don't have any kids

That's obvious.

Less than a week after losing a young child, I'm surprised the mother can even string two words together coherently. If it were me, I don't think I could even manage 'angry and frustrated'.

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I do have kids, and know how tough it can be, but it is common sense never, ever let them out of your sight!!! yes, the mother has some off the blame, the jcops have some too for not doing their jobs( known weirdos in the area still roaming) but the killer has the most blame!! Hang him high and then... Well I'm a father and punishment should never be left upto parents... The results would be horrific.

to the first poster, I don't know if there is a god and can't explain what I believe but I do believe in life after, seen too much not to. Rest in peace little one.

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Who knows.

USAR

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I think the killer might be someone who lives along the street,

Same here. This time I don't think the mother did it, but it was definitely someone who knew the mother and the mother's routine.

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I'd say this poor mom is suffering denail for her responsibility in the matter. "Why did this have to happen..." instead of "Why did I let this happen.."

"why can't police make the area more safe.." instead of "Why did I let her roam around on her own..."

At the very least I suspect this lady viewed her daughter only as a burdensome accessory, which quickly depreciated in value when the poor little girl started getting up and walking around on her own.

I don't have any kids, so I don't pretend to know what it would be like, but somehow, less than a week than after your 5 y/o girl is killed and left naked, I think ".. angry and frustrated.." just doesn't quite cut it.

Hmmm. 37 y/o, 5 y/o daughter...sounds susupiciously similar....

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Criticism aside, I hope the JCops solve this one. The idea of kiddy fiddling murderers not being caught is rather troubling.

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Heck! Glad these kind of things don't go on in my neck of the woods.

There are too many sick people out there, if they can proce these kinds of crime without doubt, by forensics, then i think it has to be execution.

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Dear Taeko,

Its 50% your fault that your daughter died. So You have got at least half a killer to blame. Just look in the mirror.

Romulus

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It's interesting how the mother refers to an apology if the killer is caught. I've seen that time and time again at trials in Japan. No matter how heinous the crime, the relatives of the victims expect an apology. It doesn't matter if the killer gets the death sentence. If they don't get that apology in court, then the matter can never be closed for them.

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If the killer spirited her away in his car, why would he return the body and the clothes to the pick-up spot instead of dumping the body far away.

Welcome to Japan where killers are dumb and/or remorseful. That is about as close as one gets to "only in Japan".

--Cirroc

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Often refusal to face the tv cameras is an admission of guilt in Japan. Of course playing to them is too!!

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“What we can do for Yukimaro is make our community safer for children through cooperation among police, media and local residents.”

and not letting 5 year old children wander the streets by themselves

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It's very sad. This case gets more bizarre all the time. I wonder if the mother is still a suspect, although I can't imagine how she could possibly be. I think the killer might be someone who lives along the street, rather than someone who just happened to be driving along. If the killer spirited her away in his car, why would he return the body and the clothes to the pick-up spot instead of dumping the body far away.

Anyway, my deepest condolences to the mother.

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Dear Taeko. I'd like to think that you will see your little girl again in heaven one day. And readers, please don't attack me for my faith. I find it a great strength in times of crisis, though I admit I cannot answer the question of why a loving god would allow things like this to happen.

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