Human skull pieces found near campsite where 7-year-old girl disappeared in 2019

a man in his 40s found the remains on the side of a mountain trail around 600 meters east from the campsite on Saturday,

Hoping that this man not being forced to confess that he got anything to do with that missing case, just because he found remaining body.

Very sad ending if this is confirmed to be the remainings of the girl, but maybe it can bring some closure to the family. Next is to clarify what happened and if someone is responsible.

Terribly sad and the mother still wants to hold onto hope of her safe return:

“The 39-year-old mother tweeted Tuesday that she believes "Misaki will come home safely." -

Too few details at this point. - The actual topography of the site is not depicted so, we don’t know yet if the remains found “on the side of the mountain trail” means ‘flat and amongst overgrowth’ or ‘at the foot of a precipice’.

This deceased could have been there from a fall, the remains intentionally left there or scattered by predators and carrion feeders.

Recall reading this same area was throughly searched several times in the days following and the mother returned on her own with one or two volunteers on subsequent occasions.

- “According to the pref police, a man, 40’s, found the remains on the side of a mountain trail around 600 m E from the campsite on Sat, reporting it to the [village] police 2 days later together with a photo.” -

It was National headlines at the time, and police made extensive, massive searches in the area. Now 3 years later, some random hiker finds it 600 meters from the campsite. Incredible.

It was National headlines at the time, and police made extensive, massive searches in the area. Now 3 years later, some random hiker finds it 600 meters from the campsite. Incredible.

Came here to say the same thing. At that time, they had close to 2,000 people searching for 2 weeks straight. People talk about the campground's remoteness but actually the road passing by the campground has tons of cars passing through particularly on weekends.

Just speculation, but there'll be little vegetation in hilly woodland at this time of year. It may be completely overgrown by autumn when the girl went missing. The woods next to my house is certainly like that.

Tracker dogs would presumably find human remains, if they had been used on that path.

Again, too few details today to link these ‘human remains’ with any crime but, some subsequent commentary & speculation here is reminiscent of the infamous 2008 Caylee Anthony ‘missing child’ case in Florida:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Caylee_Anthony -

Not making unfair, premature conclusions or casting dispersions on either this Japanese mother or the somewhat-errant ‘finder’, but there could be quite a few similarities with both these cases.

It was National headlines at the time, and police made extensive, massive searches in the area. Now 3 years later, some random hiker finds it 600 meters from the campsite. Incredible.

I have no evidence to prove this assertion, but it could be that the girl's corpse was not present at the time of the initial search and was in fact moved there at a later date.

GPS watch can reallly save life especially kids. Cant imagine how her family was worried during years :(((

RIP little angel...

That is heartbreaking to read, I remember when she went missing.

It took the guy two days to report it?? Something seems very off - two days is a very long time to wait before reporting finding human remains. Especially as I presume campers in the area would be aware of this case.

Surely any normal person would have rushed to report it immediately, right?

Hopefully this will lead to the capture of those responsible for her disappearance.

She maybe kidnaped and raped and killed by a sexual criminal or maybe attacked by an animal, i am more inclined to my first guess, This is a very sad news but is important to alarm everyone to watch for spoting criminals suspects.

The headline is terrible for the family or friends of the little girl to read, they could have said human remains.

a man in his 40s found the remains on the side of a mountain trail around 600 meters east from the campsite on Saturday, reporting it to the police in the village two days later together with a photo.

Why did he wait 2 whole days before reporting what he found? Seems a bit suss...

Two and a half year ago they searched extensively for the missing girl and now some random hiker finds human remains 600 meters from the campsite.

Thats odd.

Perhaps they should verify it was the missing person before writing the article.

Its also odd the mother believes misaki will come home safely.

I felt it right from the beginning, that all those campers including family are anyhow involved or suspicious. No wild animals, no hijacking, it’s more something like covering an unintended accident, abusing, DV, punishing for being late or have walked separately from the other kids etc. We will never know and it also wouldn’t help that little girl anymore, even if they find some more or the involved ones break their silence and each other’s covering.

It took the guy two days to report it?? Something seems very off

The article isn't clear, but it's possible he didn't realize it was parts of a human skull at first. The article says that an autopsy identified the bones as a part of a human skull which suggests it wasn't immediately obvious.

With modern technology if this case is given priority we should have an answer in a few days. How long the bone's been there, child or adult, then compare DNA

@Lamilly

As we know Japan is ultra efficiency conscious so we should have that DNA information by next year.

I get that it might not have been immediately obvious it was human remains, but given the notoriety of the camp area, and the fact he did eventually decide to report it implies he at least had an idea of what he found… just seemed odd not to report for two days and certainly not saying he must be involved.

RIP

Why did he wait 2 whole days before reporting what he found?

Maybe because he thought they were animal remains. That would be my first assumption.

Can’t stress it enough: PLEASE watch over children this Golden Week. - Too many tragically avoidable incidents often happen in these next 10 days.

“Ogura went missing after she followed other children heading to another spot.” -

If he thought it was just animal remains, why take a photo? Why eventually report? If he thought it could be human, why not report it sooner?

I’m not saying the man had anything to do with it, but it is not clear from the article why there was such a delay.