Kanagawa prefectural police on Tuesday appealed for the public to come forward with any information that might help catch the person responsible for the murder of a 66-year-old woman whose body was found in the ruins of her burned-out house in Yugawara five years ago.
Police have put up posters at JR Yugawawa Station, containing a photo of a suspect taken from surveillance camera footage at the station between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. on April 21, 2015, Sankei Shimbun reported.
On that morning, a passerby saw flames coming from the window of the 55-square-meter wooden house of Mie Harai at around 6 a.m. After the fire was extinguished, the body of Harai was found on her bed, with a knife still in the right side of her forehead. Hirai lived alone and was confined to a wheelchair.
An investigation showed that the fire started in the living room and that glass at the front entrance door had been smashed.
In another development, an elderly man, who lives about 350 meters away from Hirai's house, was assaulted by a young man who hit him with a steel pipe after he returned home at around 12:10 a.m. on April 21.
The suspect is described as being about 170 cms tall and was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and white face mask. He was also carrying a blue and white striped bag and had a black rucksack on his back.
Anyone with any information is asked to call Odawara police at 0465-32-0110.
© Japan Today
8 Comments
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klausdorth
5 years after it happened?
Ain't this a little too late?
Who remembers exactly what happened 5 years ago?
sir_bentley28
I think I saw him this morning. And yesterday! And the day before! Let me look out the window.....there he is! At this time, the majority of men wear masks and some kind of shirt of various colours. And that happened 5 years ago? Who will remember someone with a black shirt and a white mask? I don't even remember what I wore 2 days ago! Come on! You gotta give the public something more than that!
Badge213
Many cold cases are solved years after the event, sometimes someones memory is jogged or someone mentions something years later that leads to a new tip.
Mocheake
Hope they get him and soon.
WilliB
That description in the poster fits about half the population in the country.... if that is all the cops have, I am not optimistic.
Doug Maduro
Soon? What part of 5 years ago don't you get?
Mark
Poor Lady.
Mark
""with a knife still in the right side of her forehead. Hirai lived alone and was confined to a wheelchair.""
Thank you very much for being so descriptive and Hummmmm!!!, you could have simply wrote "STAPPED".