The parents of a 17-year-old girl who has been missing for a month, on Sunday asked the public for information as to her whereabouts.
Sayaka Nakagawa, a schoolgirl from Mobara, Chiba Prefecture, was reported missing by her family on July 13, two days after she was last seen. Since that time, police say they have yet to obtain any potential leads.
On Sunday, Nakagawa's parents and friends went to shopping centers and the train station and handed out 500 leaflets with her photo, asking anyone who might have seen her to contact the police, TBS reported. They also put the leaflets in residential mailboxes along the route their daughter took to go to school. "Someone must have seen or heard something," Nakagawa's father told reporters. "We ask that they contact police." He said he hasn't given up hope that his daughter is still alive somewhere.
A 30-strong police squad searched a nearby mountain forest for three days from Thursday to Saturday but turned up no leads.
Anyone with information relevant to the case is asked to call 0475-22-0110.
© Japan Today
21 Comments
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badsey3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNnV825-J6k
Marilita Fabie-Fujisawa
I pray for her safe return...
I hope the police do some door to door search suspicious or not, it's not rare this days to see something strange from a typical looking family or person. But then again, strange or not, the search should not be done only in the woods nearby.
Meguroman
My wifes hometown is not far from there and we use Mobara-eki if going there by train, as we will this week for O-bon. Stating the obvious but why did everyone wait a month before going public? Maybe Ive seen too many crime dramas but it would seem that first day or two would be the critical time to tell everyone in that area what she was wearing, etc. I doubt she ran away and this will end in tragedy.
Aaron Loki Brummett
There was one Sayaka Nakagawa onb facebook whose FB account recently went dark, along with her two facebook friends. The account now appears to have been deleted. I posted the account number in another Japantoday blog. https://www.facebook.com/sayaka.nakagawa.56
But then again, there are over three hundred Sayaka Nakagawas on Facebook. I wish they would give out more details! Something that could narrow down which Sayaka they wish for us to find, that way be don't bother other Sayaka Nakagawas. Sort of like looking for John Smith... to vague.
Scnadal.Lova
i hope nothing bad has happened to her. if i could id go to japan just to look for her.
Marilita Fabie-Fujisawa
It's me again...I just hope the media goes big on this,.like specifying such issues in TV, prime time, and all the time..everyone should be aware including young adults and kids with minds able to understand age..I think there's too much of food, and cuisine and traffic rush and the ever not forgetting the summer heat on tv which in my opinion we are almost all aware of. More news on this pls..even if nothing is achieved..I'm sure wherever she's held will really make a difference...neighbors don't know what's happening to each other anymore. Less on sports news too..more on issues like this!!! What can I do, I want to make a difference!
kimuzukashiiiii
Its been a month!? why havnt we heard about this before ... like 3 weeks ago? I suspect the chances of finding her now are fairly slim....
techall
Wondering why they waited two days to report it?
Mirai Hayashi
Every parent's nightmare! Hope they find her alive.
HonestDictator
Very sad, and one month too long. Japan needs a missing person's alert system. The amber alert etc, isn't used in the US just for children. One woman in her 60s went missing locally in our state and we learned about it 24-27 hours of her disappearance. Unfortunately she was found dead almost 1month later due to an accidental fall hiking, but at least her family was able to get closure.
If someone is missing for more than even 3 days the expectancy to find them alive just keeps getting worse.
nath
North Korea again?
gaijinfo
This is why cops should NOT be in charge of public safety. Insurance companies should. It would be cheaper, and much, much more effective.
Right now, the cops really have ZERO incentive to find this girl. Their only incentive is to not make any obvious mistakes.
Now, consider an insurance company, with it's own investigative agents. Consider if all parents would take our $1,000,000 life insurance policy on their kids, payable if they were killed, or if they disappeared for a certain amount of time.
You'd better believe the investigative agents of an insurance company would be VERY motivated to find this girl QUICK.
At any rate, I certainly hope this girl turns up, but it's sure not looking good. The only hope is that she is a runaway, and doesn't really want to be found.
kimuzukashiiiii
techall - a friend of mine had a close family member go missing recently, and the police didnt begin to take it seriously until 48 hours after ... luckily he was found safe and well, as most missing people are.
vukodlok
I pray for her safe return.
Disillusioned
The police investigation has been ongoing since her reported her missing, which was 24 hours after her disappearance. Hopefully, she has just ran away from home, but I fear she may have met with foul play.
ambrosia
I'm not sure where you got that information but according to the story, four days ago, on this site:
"According to police, Sayaka Nakagawa, a schoolgirl from Mobara, was reported missing by her family on July 13, two days after she was last seen."
shanabelle
They police delayed announcing this partly because she has run away previously.
CrimsonRedMoon
I truly hope they find her safe and well.
serendipitous
So, where was she last seen and what was she doing? May be helpful to know this.
ChibaChick
4 weeks! I got an Amber alert on my phone here less than 4 HOURS after the teenage girl was kidnapped here the other day. And now they have found them, shot him and she is safe. Why has it taken so long to even appeal to the public?
kaimycahl
Don't worry Japan is a safe country she will be ok! After a month ummm!