A high school teacher in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, was discovered murdered in the entrance to his home last Friday, police said Monday. Police said he may have been killed by someone he knew because he had just gotten out of the hospital earlier that day.
Hideo Matsumoto, 56, was discovered collapsed at the front of his house at around 10 p.m. on Friday. His body had sustained blows to the head and face, police said. The inside of the home looked to be untouched, and it is believed that Matsumoto was attacked at the entrance before he got inside.
According to his school, the teacher had been hospitalized for about two months for an undisclosed illness. Police believe the crime was committed by someone who knew Matsumoto would be getting out of hospital on that day.
© News reports
22 Comments
Login to comment
DamoSuzuki
Interesting case to investigate for the cops.
MistWizard
Undisclosed illness sounds really fishy.
Fredster
Revenge murder (?) on a 56 year old male teacher who had been on medical leave with an "undisclosed" illness for 2 months ????? THAT makes the imagination run wild without more details...
Betting
"Police said he may have been killed by someone he knew because he had just gotten out of the hospital earlier that day".
Do I understand this correctly, he was killed because he was released from hospital? If that is the case, I hope I never need to be hospitalised again in Japan.
Mark Bradley
If I had to take a wild guess...then I would have to assume that he was in the hospital because of an attempted murder by poisoning and now the murderer finally succeed through brute force.
geronimo2006
If it is someone he knew it should dead easy for the J-cops to close this one within 48 hrs.
geronimo2006
Come to think of it he probably had an outstanding loan - hospital could have been a safe place to hide, until he got out.
stereoman
Financial debt; revenge; PTA member irate at public servants and all their time off.
In any event, this should not take long to solve but, this is Japan, and as much as I love this country, the police are not one of its selling points. If this isn't solved within the next week, look for weeks of wild speculation involving jealous lovers and/or chinese hitmen.
jj1980
Especially if the murderer turns themselves in. I bet the cops have their fingers crossed on that.
blvtzpk
According to the (local?) news last night he had been attacked in March and that's why he had been in hospital.
Whilst he was not killed in my neck of the woods, the school at which he taught is very close by.
blvtzpk
Edit: After the first incident, the teacher had attended school, saying that the injuries to his head were due to him 'falling over.' The school said he should go to the hospital, and he apparently was admitted to hospital after that.
MistWizard
As a teacher the list of people he knows is going to be long indeed. Any one of thousands of students could have had a grudge. The thing to hope for is one sticking out.
blvtzpk
Edit2: Another report has him claiming that his injuries were sustained while drunk, and he couldn't remember what happened. Also happened immediately following the annual graduation of his school's students.
telecasterplayer
"Undisclosed illness sounds really fishy."
you mean fugu poisoning?
JeffLee
"Discovered murdered"?
I think the translator or copyeditor needs to take a newswriting course.
"Murder is malicious or premeditated homicide. Do not say a victim was murdered until someone is convicted of murder." (UPI Stylebook)
rajahsahib
so what did he do Jeff batter himself to death..
blunderbuss
Should I, as a teacher, be upset when the GS "teacher murdered" reveals in excess of 2,500,000 results?!
saborichan
According to the TV news, this guy was seriously injured by someone on graduation day, those months ago? ... sad situation.
usaexpat
Uh, this story provides almost no information so we go with rampant speculation.
3princes
@ Jeff-yeah I think it should be "found dead" instead of murdered..coz it might have been an accident..he must have hit his head on his way up to his apartment then fell on his face..there I solved the case..RIP Sensei..
Icewind007
Yeah, but that seems to be the pastime of people on this site. Nothing new.
mokgohan
I often hit Japan Today for my healthy dose of sensational scandals and gruesome crimes and enjoy the comments section's range of opinions from logical and dead-on to completely out of touch with reality. And now, with this particular case, I can finally see how far off some people really are but still feel the need to share their theories like Junior detectives.
"If I had to take a wild guess...then I would have to assume that he was in the hospital because of an attempted murder by poisoning" Yep- that is a wild guess. At least the poisoning part.
"Financial debt; revenge; PTA member irate at public servants and all their time off." Your first guess is your best, your second and third were both in jest, I hope. It's a private school, not public.
"Is there a JET placement at his school?" No there isn't. But there are foreign English teachers.
"As a teacher the list of people he knows is going to be long indeed. Any one of thousands of students could have had a grudge." This comment made me laugh.
And how do I know all this? "Whilst he was not killed in my neck of the woods, the school at which he taught is very close by." I'm sure you'll understand that if I told you that I WORK very close to where you LIVE, it WOULDn't BE TRUE.