Gruesome News All: Japan News Brief 2009.10.11

Gruesome news concerning several murders has overshadowed even the diet talks grilling PM Hatoyama’s administration on their policies and President Obama’s upcoming meeting on Friday (The 13th!) with PM Hatoyama in Japan.

A young female student went missing and was later found to have been abducted while returning home from a part-time job along a mountain path late at night. Her severed head was later found in the mountains in Hiroshima prefecture, and body parts continue to be found. The poor, poor soul.

In a rare case of a female serial killer, a woman repeatedly duped men for money in a marriage scam, and murdered a number of them. First questioned by police when two men made formal complaints about having been scammed for money, on further investigation several murders, some originally thought to have been suicides or accidental deaths, have been attributed to her, and more continue to be found. Many of these men really seemed to have loved her and gladly lent her the money with her promise to repay them after marriage. It is a shame, since she seemed genuinely loved, that she didn’t just settle down into a happy married life with one of them instead creating a spree of murders. Photos of her show a portly woman, only made attractive by makeup and a winning smile. She probably didn’t get any dates in high school and has certainly taken her revenge now. Had she murdered the two men before they made their complaints, she might still have gone unfound. I wonder how many other yet undiscovered similar cases there are still out there? Perhaps there are fewer female serial murderers just because they remain under the wire?

In a harrowing story that took place already more than a year and a half ago now, a nerdy young man convinced a young female English teacher to give him private lessons and home, and he murdered her in his apartment and buried her in a sand-bin on his balcony. When the police went to his apartment to question him after she went missing, he simply ran away, in a major police guffaw, and has been on the lam until now. Apparently in the duration, he had plastic surgery and had been living and working in Osaka. When he went to a hospital in Nagoya for further plastic surgery he was recognized and the visit reported to the police. Pictures were then posted of his current face and he was reported while waiting for a ferry to take him to Okinawa. He was brought for questioning to Tokyo late last night.

Fugitive arrested in Osaka over murder of British woman

(Mainichi Japan) November 10, 2009

Police in Osaka say they have arrested the prime suspect in the 2007 killing of Briton Lindsay Ann Hawker. Tatsuya Ichihashi, 30, was arrested in Osaka's Suminoe Ward on Tuesday, on suspicion of abandoning Hawker's body. Police and other sources said investigators received a phone tip on Tuesday evening reporting a man resembling Ichihashi at a ferry terminal. Officers rushed to the scene and questioned the man, who reportedly admitted that he was Ichihashi. ...

...Ichihashi was placed on a police wanted list on March 27, 2007, on suspicion of abandoning the body of Hawker. The 22-year-old teacher's body was found on the balcony of Ichihashi's apartment in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, in March 2007.

Hawker had worked as a teacher at an English language school in Tokyo, but on March 26, 2007, a worker from her school phoned police, saying that attempts to contact her had been unsuccessful. Police found part of Ichihashi's name and his telephone number on a note in Hawker's apartment. They visited his apartment and were questioning him in front of his home at about 9:40 p.m. the same evening, when he fled barefoot. Police later found Hawker's body in a bathtub on Ichihashi's balcony, buried in sand with her knees bent.

An autopsy found that Hawker had been strangled with considerable force, and her face and limbs had been hit. After the killing, Hawker's family came to Japan several times, calling for information on the case. More...

Accused marriage scammer faces fresh arrest warrant as police probe suspicious deaths

(Mainichi Japan) November 10, 2009

Police probing the suspicious deaths of several men acquainted with a 34-year-old woman at the center of a marriage scam investigation are poised to serve the woman a fresh arrest warrant over another case of marriage fraud, investigative sources said.

Police are also carefully investigating the relationship between the woman and 41-year-old Yoshiyuki Oide, a man she had been dating who died from carbon monoxide poisoning in a rented car in a parking lot in Fujimi, Saitama Prefecture, in August.

Investigative sources said that when prefectural police analyzed the history of a computer seized from the woman's apartment, they found that the woman had been in contact with several dozen men through marriage introduction Web sites. Several men had deposited money into the woman's account or handed her cash, and investigators apparently uncovered another marriage fraud case.

Prefectural police have already arrested the woman on suspicion of swindling a total of about 3.2 million yen from men in Nagano and Shizuoka prefectures by pretending she was interested in marrying them. She was also served a fresh arrest warrant on Oct. 21 on suspicion of attempting to defraud a man in Saitama Prefecture out of around 2.1 million yen. The woman was indicted in a district court the same day on charges of fraud. Public prosecutors are expected to indict her on suspicion of attempted fraud in the near future. Original story...

Student was apparently strangled before she was decapitated

(Mainichi Japan) November 10, 2009

HIROSHIMA -- Murdered student Miyako Hiraoka was strangled before being decapitated and abandoned on a mountain in Hiroshima Prefecture, sources close to the investigation say. ...

...Hiraoka's torso was discovered in a forest on Mount Garyu (1,223 meters) on Sunday. Aside from strangulation marks, she had also suffered knife wounds to the chest. Her decapitated head showed a heavy blow to the face. There were also defense wounds, indicating she had put up a fight against her attacker. Leaf accumulation around the body points to her being abandoned a few days before she was found. ...

...Hiraoka went missing after leaving work on Oct. 26. More...