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Ryo Katsuki, 21, who was arrested for allegedly abandoning the naked body of Yukimaro Narita, 5, in September in Togane City, Chiba Prefecture, admits to the allegation but has denied any intent to kill her. What is emerging now is that the suspect has been well known in the neighborhood for his strange behavior.
“When I was walking by a park one day, Katsuki suddenly followed me with a strange smile on his face,” says a high school girl who lives in the area. “I rushed into a shopping mall and shouted to him, 'Stop it, you creep!' He took off after that.”
There have also been rumors that Katsuki and a close friend might have molested other children. Another high school girl says, “There was a rumor that the two of them used to take small kids and students of schools for the handicapped into public toilets.”
While Katsuki's behavior has been well-known in the community, his lawyer Hiroaki Fukushima points out he's a socially vulnerable person due to an intellectual disability. He says, “I talked with him for 2 1/2 hours about things that ordinary people would chat about in 20 minutes. Even if he killed the girl, it would have taken him a long time to understand it.”
What upsets Fukushima the most is that a female news reporter for a TV station approached Katsuki before his arrest. After the crime in September, reporters came to the area and heard about Katsuki from locals. Fukushima says the reporter's questioning of Katsuki has left him even more confused over the case. “I saw a news program on TV where Katsuki was invited to a karaoke parlor by this female news reporter prior to his arrest. They were exchanging email addresses and phone numbers. After he was arrested, the TV station reported he stalked the female reporter and made silent calls to her. No women have ever been interested in him so far. Therefore, he might be fond of her because she approached him frankly.”
In fact, Katsuki's mother told reporters that her son has recently been dating a woman although she didn't know who. Fukushima thinks the woman may be the female reporter.
Fukushima suggests that Katsuki's statement to police in which he said, “I didn't think I would be arrested” stems from a conversation with the female reporter. He explains: “The reporter asked him 'You're not the criminal, are you?' He replied, 'No, I'm not.'” Fukushima says that Katsuki, who has an intellectual disability, probably interpreted the reporter's question as a statement of fact. He complains that Katsuki has a hard enough time understanding his own behavior, but the reporter has made the situation even more difficult.
Mafumi Usui, a psychology professor at Niigata Seiryo University, says, “If Katsuki liked the female reporter, being asked 'You're not the criminal, are you?” might make him think he isn't and block out any memory of what he did or didn't do.” (Translated by Taro Fujimoto)
© Japan Today
16 Comments
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kokuryu
Wow, this one is going to be a doozy I can see... Obviously this guy needs a lot of mental help, and probably some drugs to help stabilize his mind so he can think straight. Maybe then something would be found out. But it even seems like he may not be responsible for the girl's death - but may be responsible for putting her body there. But even that may not be true - he may have just found her body there and done nothing at all. How are mental patients handled in Japan?
Samuraiiki
Stalking a reporter? No such thing, specially when they initiate the contact.
techall
This guy seems to have freaked out everyone he comes in contact with and this reporter was dating him! Holy crap she is either a very dedicated investigative reporter or friggin' nuts!!!
nimbus
The guy was charged with abandoning the girl's body in September and they still have not charge him with murder at the end of December? Seems to me if this guy is so "intellectually disabled", there should be plenty of physical evidence linking him to the murder. Did the police collect evidence that link this guy to the murder? Or did they just grab him because he is the weirdo in the neighbourhood?
zaichik
Why would they ask a professor in Niigata for an opinion on a case in Chiba?!
borscht
zaichik,
Reporter knows the Niigata professor or the professor has written a book on the subject. Or the reporter got the professor's name from the lawyer? Lots of reasons. This Katsuki sounds like one troubled character. No excuse for what he did but did he manage to be one more to fall through the cracks?
bamboohat
I think it's pretty unethical for a female reporter to approach a guy that is known in the neighborhood for being socially awkward at the very least, and then spend time without regard to how it would affect him personally.
Level of guilt notwithstanding, if your some guy that has never gotten an honest smile from a cute girl, and some female starts showing interest in you, no telling how that could scramble your brains. It would be a shame if the reporter decided to drum up a story by using her femininity on the poor guy to plant some memories in his head.
zaichik
Good thinking, borscht.
This type of honey-trap approach is dangerous enough when the cops try it (c/f the Colin Stagg debacle in the Rachel Nickell case in the UK)
likeitis
Before condemning the reporter too much, I have to wonder if it was as a result of her action that the guy was even brought to the attention of police.
And this is the first I heard about the friend of the guy. Were those rumors followed up on?
(Is this a tabloid story? Not sure what to make of it.)
bdiego
Yeah it's sad that reporters can spot obvious suspects before police. If someone's been rumored to be doing this behavior in any neighborhood, he should have been questioned by police before this crime ever occurred. This may be his first murder, but he's a career criminal.
Dogdog
He sure did and that's saying something about how simple he must be. In this country you can be very cognitively challenged from birth and succesfully pursue a career in politics, the law or the police force.
Pukey2
Obviously this guy isn't too clever.
timeon
what I fail to understand is why these weirdo next door guys you can see acting strange in the neighborhood or shouting on trains roam so freely in Japan? I know, human rights and blabla, but common, these potentially dangerous mentally ill person must be taken care of and not let free and unsupervised in society
bdiego
timeon: I see weirdos roaming freely every country I've gone, Japan ranks pretty much in the middle as far as that goes. Tokyo has a lot more, but then so do all big cities especially New York and San Francisco.
WilliB
At this point it is irrelevant if he did it or not. The cops and media have decided that he did, and he is not a position to prove to opposite. So, case closed.
ca1ic0cat
And here I thought the reporter had confused the lawyer. Sounds like the suspect is a bit beyond confused. A rope will fix that though.