Police have renewed their appeal for any information from the public that might help solve the murders of a family of four in the house in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward 23 years ago.
Last week, police handed out flyers appealing for information at Seijogakuenmae train station, as they have done each year at this time, in the hope that someone will come forward with new information. They also displayed a mannequin wearing clothes similar to what the killer is believed to have worn.
Mikio Miyazawa, 44, his 41-year-old wife Yasuko, 8-year-old daughter Niina, and 6-year-old son Rei, were found dead on the morning of Dec 31, 2000. Miyazawa's son had been strangled, and the other three had been stabbed to death. Fingerprints and other evidence in the home indicate the killer used the computer and ate ice cream after the attack on Dec 30, spending several hours in the house before leaving the next morning before dawn.
Many of the officers who originally investigated the case have retired but some attend the memorial ceremony each year.
Approximately 280,000 officers have been involved in the case to date, and police have received more than 16,000 pieces of information from the public, yet the killer remains at large. There is a 20 million yen reward for information which leads to the arrest of the killer or killers.
A police spokesman said the department will never give up until the case is solved.
Despite extensive detective work focusing on the killer's clothing, accessories, weapons, and other circumstantial evidence such as the sand found on the clothing that the killer abandoned at the scene, police have not identified any suspects.
Following the murders, police deduced that the clothes, including a sweater, and knife left at the scene had been bought in Kanagawa Prefecture. Three kinds of powdered fluorescent dye were found on the trainers and bag left at the scene. In the pocket of the sweater, which had only gone on sale two months before the killings took place, traces of bird dropping, Japanese zelkova tree and willow leaves were found.
Police learned that 130 of those particular sweaters had been sold in Tokyo but have been able to only track down the owners of 12.
DNA analysis has revealed that traces of blood (type A) found at the scene not belonging to the family suggests that the killer has a mother of European descent, possibly from a country near the Mediterranean or Adriatic Sea. Analysis of the Y-chromosome has revealed that the killer's father is of Asian descent, with the DNA appearing in 1 in 4 or 5 Koreans, 1 in 10 Chinese, and 1 in 13 Japanese. He is believed to be about 170 cms tall and of thin build.
Anyone with any information is urged to call 03-3482-3829.
© Japan Today
8 Comments
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Fighto!
Shocking crime.
I still suspect the perpetrator may well have been a US Airman resident nearby. Yokota Air Force base is ~15km away from the crime scene. Traces of sand from Edwards Air Force base in Nevada were found in his bag.
I hope this angle was fully explored, because it is probably too late now.
NCIS Reruns
This unsolved crime has been subject to all kinds of creative speculation. One of the reasons it is so enigmatic is that none of the possible motives suggested for the killings have been proved true. The Miyazawa family was not found to have large debts, involved in personal or legal disputes, and so on, of the sort that would provoke such a vicious crime. If the perpetrator had been in his early 20s at the time, he would be in his mid-40s now. It is of scant consolation, perhaps (and I realize I am editorializing here), but one cannot help but think the criminal --- even a genuine psychopath --- must have led a miserable life.
Fighto!
Probably true.
But he has managed to keep his nose clean, wherever he lives. Many nations now use fingerprint biometrics upon entering, so it's unlikely he has travelled far either, lest his prints be cross-matched and flagged.
The case must haunt so many of those retired detectives.
Blacksamurai
Probably the biggest obstacle to solving this crime is the unwillingness of the police here to give information that might reflect badly on the reputation of Mr Miyazawa. This shocking murder seems like either a hit put out on him that sadly involved his family to remove witnesses or he knew the man who visited the house and killed him and his family.
Murderers don't usually hang around in the house of their victim and this behavior was especially risky as either Mr Miyazawa's or his wife's parents lived very closely next door. The fact that the guy hung around the house and even ate food as well as using the net shows a sense of acquaintance or even relationship with Mr Miyazawa as well as complete ruthlessness especially after killing the wife and children.
The murder will never be solved as the murderer most likely left Japan shortly after and probably was a very low profile person. I don't think he was a foreign or half foreign military person as somebody speculated. This seems almost like a secret relationship gone bad and because the J police can't find the murderer and know from experience they won't, they won't tell the public that.
Gaijinjland
Maybe they should up the reward money? 20 million yen kind of seems like a joke when other countries offer rewards in the millions of dollars for information in similar cases.
OkCool
this is news to me as I have not heard this mentioned anywhere in the official sources. What kind of information that may potentially tarnish his reputation?
Since the drafting and implementation of the new DNA legislation will take years if the public are not convinced, the police should look more closely into the sand left behind as the hip bag surely belongs to the killer and the sand from a country miles away must have somehow gotten into the bag.
this is an interesting point. I feel the murderer is an experienced killer who is used to death. And there are very limited fields dealing with such gruesome deaths. Moreover, he single-handedly murdered 4 people. Since the relatives next door did not hear any screams, he probably covered their mouths and attacked with the free hand which required some level of skills.
Blacksamurai
True, that's why this murder feels like a paid hit. It was done with such cruel efficiency with nobody aware of it including the house's inhabitants until it was too late.
However, the personal element of hanging around checking out the house seems to indicate some previous interaction or at least knowledge of Mr Miyazawa. I could be wrong but I think his job was working in an entertainment company - it might be Sony - and initially he was reported by a few sources to be a lawyer but I don't think that's correct.
The J police receive unfair criticism sometimes for not disclosing information or supposedly not actively assisting those connected with their investigations of homicides such as the victims' relatives.
However, they're very careful with releasing information and especially when they could have somebody in mind but don't have any evidence connecting that person to the relevant crime. They also respect the dead person's reputation more than in western countries - they're reluctant to release any information that might be rightly or wrongly controversial in any way.
I am not suggesting at all that Mr Miyazawa did anything wrong but as Japanese people do tend to compartmentalise their networks and relationships more than Americans do, for example, there could be a credible suggestion about somebody who was in his life and could have done this.
OkCool
I agree. It’s strange if it is a random attack on the family coz it could have been anyone else and someone who would just want to kill would usually go for a house where it is quiet, where people were sleeping and vulnerable. The perpetrator knew Mr Miyazawa was awake as the lights were on while he was working on his computer, makes it seems like the killer confirmed his victim before breaking in. The fact that the killer knew his way around the neighbourhood considering he evaded neighbours or cctv efficiently seems like it was all premeditated to a certain extent. The murders were so gruesome it seems like a personal grudge.