By Khadija Rida
On December 30, 2000 the Miyazawa family were murdered in their own home in the Setagaya ward of Tokyo, Japan. To this day it is an unsolved case that attracts attention because of the criminal’s abnormal behavior, and even though much evidence was left behind, the criminal has not yet been identified.
About the Family
The Miyazawa family were your typical Japanese family. They were loving and well
respected in the community. They also didn’t have any enemies or people who might want to hurt them.
– Mikio Miyazawa (44) worked at home for Interbrand, a large, London-based marketing firm that had helped brand the term “Wi-Fi.” He loved animation, puppets, and theatrical plays.
– Yasuko Miyazawa (41) was a teacher who ran a “cram school” from the family home. She spent a lot of time with her children.
– Niina (8) was in second grade at a public school in Setagaya. She enjoyed soccer, ballet, and piano.
– Rei (6) attended a public kindergarten in Setagaya. He had a speech impairment which worried the family, so they had hired a professional to help him.
The Miyazawa House
The Miyazawa family first moved into their house in 1990. They lived next door to Yasuko’s mother, sister, and her brother in law. The Miyazawa house was a semi-detached home, sharing one common wall. There was no internal connection between the two houses. Therefore to get from one side to the other you needed to go outside and through another door.
The family’s house was located directly behind Soshigaya park, which also contained a skate park. The park had been there for many years and was very popular. Due to this, the city had planned to expand it. This plan caused the two hundred families who originally lived there in 1990 to move out, leaving just four families: The Miyazawas, their relatives, and two other families.
The skate park had been causing problems for the family due to loud noises. Mikio had even confronted a group of loud teenagers for making too much noise. Due to these commotions the Miyazawas had planned to move in March 2001. Unfortunately, they would never get that chance.
The Day of the Crime
On Saturday December 30th at around 6:00 pm, the family went shopping at
Seijogakuenmae Station, just under a mile from their home. A neighbor who drove by their house confirmed that at 6:30 pm, their car was not in their driveway. At 7:00 pm that night, Yasuko called next door to her mother. We don’t know what the conversation was about but we can assume it was about Niina going next door to watch TV, because shortly after that Niina went next door to watch a recorded TV program until 9:30 pm. At around 10:38 pm that evening Mikio read a work-related email which was password-protected, meaning only he could access it. This was the last recorded activity of the Miyazawa family.
At around 10 pm, a passerby heard what sounded like an argument taking place in the household. Around 11:30 pm Yasuko’s family stated that they heard a loud bang coming from the Miyazawa home. They weren’t sure of the exact time but were able to estimate it based on the schedule of television programming at the time. Around this same time another eyewitness claimed to have seen a man hurrying along the walking path that lay next to the family’s house.
The Discovery
On December 31, 2000 at 11 am, Yasuko’s mother tried calling her daughter’s family to
make plans for the afternoon. However there was no ringtone. Unknown to her the phone lines in the Miyazawa family home had been deliberately cut beforehand. (The killer unplugged the phone line.) Worried, she went next door and rang the bell. However there were no answers, movements, or noise. So she used her own set of keys and let herself in. She was immediately confronted by the body of Mikio Miyazawa (44) at the bottom of the staircase leading up to the second story. Mikio had been stabbed to death. She called out to the family but heard no replies. When she went upstairs she discovered the bodies of Yasuko (41) and Niina (8). Both had been stabbed even more violently than Mikio was. At this point Yasuko’s mother put her hands on their bodies. Yasuko’s mother then went to the bedroom next to where Yasuko and Niina lay and found Rei (6) who lay on his bed. He had been strangled to death, leading investigators to think that he had been the first member in the family to be killed.
According to the testimony of Yasuko’s mother, the body of Mikio was covered with a drawer and the body of Yasuko was covered in clothes. However this was not seen by the police so it is not known if their faces were covered. But Rei’s face was covered with a futon, and Niina’s face was facing down. It’s said that sometimes a victim’s face is covered if the perpetrator is familiar with them.
Police Response
The subsequent police investigation found over 12,545 pieces of evidence. A lot of evidence was left by the killer, such as fingerprints, footprints, feces in the bathroom, clothes, and the murder weapons (a sashimi knife the killer bought and a knife from the Miyazawa house.) Police also found blood and footprints that were not from any of the Miyazawas.
The General Theory
It is believed that the second floor window of the bathroom was how the killer entered. The dust screens in the bathroom on the site were found to have been damaged after the incident, and the murderer’s shoe prints were found on the ground under the window. The branches of trees planted next to this window were also found to be broken.
The general theory is that the killer entered through the bathroom and turned right to go to Rei’s room who was the first in the family to be killed by being strangled. Mikio who was in the study room on the first floor probably heard a noise and went up to check it. As the killer exits Rei’s room he sees Mikio. Then there was an altercation between them on top of the stairs … but eventually the killer stabs him with a sashimi knife and either throws Mikio down the stair or Mikio falls down the stairs. The killer then went on to attack Niina and Yasuko but Retreated after the sashimi knife broke. At this point Yasuko found a first aid kit to tend her daughter’s wounds thinking that the killer had given up. However this was not the case and the killer came back from the kitchen with a knife from their own home. Based on the contents in their stomach, the time of the family’s deaths was 11:30pm. It is also theorized that Yasuko and Niina had hidden upstairs from the attacker since Niina’s blood was found on the futon.
Investigators say that the stab wounds on the females were more excessive than on the father. Both victims had been stabbed even after their death. This prompted a theory that the killer had some sort of aggression towards females.
(These white rectangular boxes show the locations of the victims’ bodies. Rei was found on the bunk bed, Mikio at the bottom of the stairs, and Yasuko and Niina on the two steps above the first floor leading up to the mezzanine floor from which you must pull down a ladder that leads to the third-floor loft.)
(In this view of the mezzanine floor, the bodies of Yasuko and Niina were found at the foot of the ladder. The black line lines up to the opening of the third floor and on the third floor it is a loft.)
After the killings
It is believed that the criminal lurked around the house for more than 10 hours, right
up until morning. There is also a possibility that the perpetrator escaped at night. It is speculated that the perpetrator had been treating a wound on his right hand he got during the attack. Adhesive plasters with the fingerprints and blood of the criminal, and towels with blood stains, were scattered in the kitchen on the second floor. One of the bandages was applied to the wound, then peeled off and pasted on the back of the notebook in the living room. There is also evidence that he used female hygiene products to stop bleeding.
There is evidence that the perpetrator helped himself to 4 bottles of barley tea, melon, and 4 ice cream cups from the family fridge. One ice cream container was found on the bathtub on the second floor, another on the cushion in the living room, and two more were piled up on the side of the computer on the first floor. The criminal’s saliva was also found on the cup he used to drink tea. He had wandered around the house as he ate ice cream.
The killer used the computer at 1:18 am and ate ice cream cups as he browsed the internet for 5 minutes and 18 seconds. He visited the site of Shiki Theater Company which was bookmarked by Mikio. He attempted to buy tickets to see a show with the family’s credit cards, but he was unsuccessful. He logged on again in the morning at 10:05 for 4 minutes and 16 seconds. He visited the pages of Mikio’s company and Yasuko’s school. After browsing he pulled the power cord of the computer. The power cord was not found at the scene. Fingerprints were found on the mouse but not the keyboard. He had also spread out personal documents, diaries, identification cards, utility bills, bank books, and other documents on the dining room table and the sofa on the second floor. The second floor bathtub was filled with documents, receipts, towels, sanitary products, and other garbage. He had also left feces in the bathroom. The feces were tested and it was discovered that the food he had eaten was a sesame spinach dish with string beans that had been consumed somewhere else. (This type of food is something that mother’s make for their sons. ) At some point, evidence shows that the killer took a nap on the couch in the living room.
Police found that a tuition fee was stolen and Mikio’s and Yasuko’s wallets were emptied. Looking at how the killer had spread the documents on the table this may be because he wanted to know the pin to Mikio’s bank account. This gave rise to the theory that the main motivation for the crime was robbery. However cash, passports, bank cards, and jewelry was left behind.
Strange events before the crime
-A witness reported seeing Mikio arguing with the Bōsōzoku, a motorcycle gang who are known for being violent and dangerous. They were also known to carry weapons.
-In the months prior to the crime the community had started to notice incidents of violent animal abuse. Animals in the area were being physically tortured and killed. There were rumors that rodents were killed and even the local stray cats had been tortured. (But later on it was determined that this was done by a bank clerk who had no connection to the murders of the Miyazawa family.)
-On December 25th, Yasuko had mentioned to her father-in-law that a strange car had been repeatedly parked in front of their house despite the fact that there were other empty parking spaces nearby which wouldn’t require the owner of the car to jump over a fence to get into the park.
-On December 27th, an eyewitness had seen a man estimated to be in his forties wandering around the Miyazawa family home.
-On December 29th, the day before the crime, a young man was spotted near Seijogakuenmae Station, which was just a few miles away from where the Miyazawa family was living. The man was seen to be wearing a “skater”-type outfit similar to the clothes found at the crime scene along with a backpack. The eyewitness thought this was unusual because the man was underdressed for the weather. (It was also on this day that police believe a man matching this rough description purchased a sashimi knife from that same shopping area. It was the only one purchased at this supermarket on that day.)
-On December 30th, a man stated to be between 35-40 and matching the same description of the suspect was seen near Sengawa Station—roughly a mile from the Miyazawa home. A man was also seen hurrying away on a path near the home at around 11:35 pm (suspected to be the killer hurrying in his way to climb the fence.)
(This is part 1 of the Setagaya Family Murder mystery, and if you want to read more about it you can head over to Part 2.)