Casefile True Crime - Case 148: The Miyazawa Family

Episode Date: July 4, 2020

The Miyazawa’s were a seemingly normal family who lived in a semi-detached, three-storey house in Setagaya’s Kamisoshigaya district. But when their bodies are found brutally slaughtered in their own home, questions begin to emerge as to whether the family could be hiding any secrets. --- Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Researched by Holly Boyd Written by Elsha McGill Creative Director: Milly Raso For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-148-the-miyazawa-family

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. This episode contains descriptions of violence against the family, including children. It won't be suitable for all listeners. Japan's capital city of Tokyo is made up of 23 special wards, each of which is a self-governing municipality with several districts.

Built on the western side of Tokyo, the Setagaya Ward is the second-largest and most densely populated. It is a residential, leafy area, with a reputation for being family-friendly while offering easy access to the city. The four-member Miyazawa family lived in a semi-detached, three-story house in Setagaya's Kami-Soshigaya district. Two hundred similar homes were originally built in the area, but when the Miyazawa's moved in in 1990, most of these had been demolished to make way for Soshigaya Park, a public recreational

space consisting of play areas, tennis courts, and grassy lawns. By the year 2000, the Miyazawa's property was one of only four remaining houses that were essentially located inside the parklands. Soshigaya Park was situated along the east and south side of the house, with the Senkawa River to the west. Directly behind and separated only by a fence was a skate park and playground. The area was typically quiet and safe, but the addition of the skate park had introduced a hive of activity and lots of noise.

There were also sightings of suspicious individuals in the area, which led to some safety concerns for the Miyazawa family. The Kami-Soshigaya district had once been overseen by a neighborhood watch program, but with so few houses remaining, security had become an issue. As the government was offering a buyback scheme to allow for further expansion of the parklands, the Miyazawa's had decided to take advantage of the offer and applied to be relocated. The family was made up of parents, Mikio and Yasuko, and their two young children, daughter Nina and son Rei.

Mikio and Yasuko had met at a self-development seminar during the 1980s, eventually going on to marry in December of 1986. 44-year-old Mikio was a creative man with a love for animation. His childhood was spent participating in puppetry and other theatrical productions at school. After graduating from university, he worked as an animator and question developer for quiz programs. He eventually secured a position at Interbrand, a London-based marketing company with over 20 officers worldwide.

Both clients included high-profile brands such as Nissan, Microsoft and Xerox. Mikio worked in their Tokyo branch, developing corporate identity for major corporations. His colleagues described him as a congenial man who got on well with everyone. 41-year-old Yasuko was a kind, patient and intelligent woman who ran what was known as a cram school from the family's home. Called a juku in Japanese, a cram school is a private school that offers supplementary classes for students wanting extra help preparing for key academic admission exams. The Miyazawa's plans to move were complicated by the fact that their six-year-old son, Rei,

had learning disabilities and a speech impediment that required special attention. Rei attended a public kindergarten in Setagaya, but his parents were seeking professional help before enrolling him in primary school as they wanted to give him the best possible start in life. His sister, eight-year-old Nina, was a bright, intelligent girl who had skipped a grade at school. She was very active with a passion for soccer, piano and ballet and would show off her dance moves to her extended family.

Both Mikio and Yasuko adored their children and kept a record of their physical growth by periodically marking their heights on their living room wall. Given the unique situation that the Miyazawa family faced, the government gave them permission to remain in their kami-soshigaya property until they found a location suited to Rei's needs. In late 2000, the Miyazawa's found a suitable plot of land to build their new home on, with the intention that Yasuko's mother, Haruko, sister Anne, and Anne's husband, Hiroyuki, would join them as neighbors.

The three currently lived next door to the Miyazawa's on the other side of their semi-detached home in Kami-soshigaya, and they were eager to stay together. They were all due to move out in March of 2001, meaning they only had to put up with the rowdy crowds at the skate park for a few more months. On the morning of Sunday, December 31, Haruko tried to phone her daughter, as she did most mornings, but the call wouldn't go through. By 10am, Haruko still hadn't seen or heard from Yasuko or the rest of the family, and she began to worry.

There was no internal connection between the two homes, so she went outside and knocked on the Miyazawa's front door. When there was no response, she let herself inside. The Miyazawa's house was split across three stories. The entrance opened to a reception room, which Mikio Miyazawa used as a study. Once the rear of the room was a short flight of stairs that led to the mezzanine level, which hosted Rei and Nina's shared bedroom, a small bathroom, and a separate toilet. A further flight of stairs led to the second floor, where the kitchen, living room, and

laundry were located. On the mezzanine level, a pull-down ladder granted access to the third floor attic, which contained Mikio and Yasuko's bedroom. At the base of the ground floor stairs, Haruko discovered the blood-soaked body of her son-in-law, Mikio. She continued upstairs to the mezzanine level, where, on the landing, she found the bodies of her daughter Yasuko and granddaughter Nina. They too were lying in pools of blood.

Haruko touched them to check if they were still alive, but both were cold. In a state of shock, she rushed out of the house and called the police. Attending officers found the body of Rei Miyazawa in the bunk bed he shared with his sister. Investigators pieced together a probable series of events based on the presentation of the crime scene. It appeared as though the killer had climbed the fence at the rear of the property and scaled up to the mezzanine level. A screen that covered the bathroom window had been removed, indicating the killer had done

this to enter the house. After strangling six-year-old Rei in his bedroom, the killer then came across Nina and launched an attack. As Mikio was the only member of the household not dressed for bed, it was believed he was working in his study when he heard the disturbance and went upstairs to investigate. He then came face-to-face with the intruder, who brandished a 34-centimeter long knife with a 21-centimeter blade that was typically used for preparing sashimi, a Japanese delicacy of raw fish and meat.

Mikio was stabbed upwards of ten times and either fell or was pushed down the stairs. A piece of the killer's blade was lodged in one of Mikio's wounds, having broken off during the frenzied attack. Meanwhile, Nina had climbed the ladder to her parents' bedroom to alert her mother. An open first aid kit was found in the bedroom, along with bloodstained bandages on one of the futon beds. Nina's blood was found on some of the items. It was believed the eight-year-old had sustained injuries in her initial confrontation with

the armed intruder, which Yasuko had tended to. The pair then ventured down to the mezzanine level, perhaps anticipating that the perpetrator had left. However, the killer was still inside the house and had replaced his broken knife with a larger one from the kitchen. The violence inflicted on Yasuko and Nina was described by investigators as overkill. News of the quadruple homicide left the Miyazawa's friends and relatives horrified, with Mikio's mother passing out from shock when she was informed.

Police Chief Takeshi Sucida later said, When I think about the brutality, I just wonder how could a sane person carry out such an extreme crime? He slashed them from above the chest to the face as if he tormented them. It was extremely brutal, and to the way he finished them off in the very end. It was so horrific, we couldn't show those guards to the devastated victims' families. There are no other cases in which the victims have been cut up like this. The Miyazawa's phone line had been disconnected and their house had been ransacked.

Personal documents such as diaries, identification cards, utility bills, receipts and bank statements were spread across the dining room table and the sofa on the second floor. In the bathtub, police found some of Mikio's work documents, receipts, Yasuko's cram school paperwork, sanitary items, towels, ice cream wrappers and the random contents of a drawer that had been emptied. Stolen from the home was a tuition fee paid by one of Yasuko's students, which amounted to approximately 200,000 yen, the equivalent of around 3,000 Australian dollars at the time.

Mikio and Yasuko's wallets were found empty, and based on the documents that had been spread out on the table, it appeared as though the killer had been trying to figure out the pin for Mikio's bank cards. The theory then arose that the crime was motivated by robbery. However, cash, passbooks, bank cards and jewellery had been left behind. Mikio's documents featured Kanji, one of three Japanese alphabets along with Hiragana and Katakana. Kanji is regarded as the most complex of the three.

It is made up of more than 2,000 Chinese characters and is taught to students during the nine years of compulsory childhood education. As the killer had rifled and seemingly read through Mikio's paperwork, police believed he was able to read Kanji and was likely raised in Japan. A blood-stained raglan-style sweatshirt was found on the second floor. As it didn't contain any slash marks, it was presumed to have belonged to the killer. Other foreign clothing items and accessories were also found folded neatly at the scene, presumably by the killer.

These included a grey hat, a black jacket, a green-checkered scarf, a grey and black hip bag, a pair of black gloves and two black handkerchiefs. Multiple footprints were also found throughout the property, including near the bunk bed in the children's room, on the stairs, and outside the house underneath the bathroom window. The footprints on the stairs switched position halfway up from the wall side to the handrail side, a unique stepping pattern consistent with military training. The footprints outside suggested that the killer used the bathroom window to exit the

house rather than enter it, as was initially thought. A large amount of foreign blood was found in the attic bedroom and throughout the rest of the house, including on discarded bandages, towels, and sanitary pads. Testing confirmed it wasn't from any of the victims, meaning it was the killers. The killer was a male with a blood type A. Toxicology results showed there were no drugs in his system and he was a non-smoker. A bandage covered in the killer's blood was found stuck to the back of a notebook in the living room, which led investigators to conclude that the killer must have injured his right

hand during one of the attacks and tended to his wounds with the family's first aid kit. As he then ransacked the house, one of the bandages likely peeled off and came to be stuck on the notebook. Due to the brutality of the crime, the abundant forensic evidence, and the level of destruction within the house, police initially suspected multiple perpetrators were involved. However, the footprints and unidentified blood had come from one person. There was also evidence that the killer had remained in the house for some time after

the murders. It appeared he had slept or rested on the living room's sofa and also consumed food and drinks belonging to the Miyazawa family, including melon, four bottles of barley tea, and four ice creams. One of the ice cream wrappers was found in the bathtub, another was in the living room, and two were beside the computer on the first floor. Furthermore, unflushed feces were found in one of the toilets. The victims were estimated to have been murdered at approximately 11.30pm on Saturday, December

30. According to Mikio's computer records, the killer had used the device to access the internet at 11.18am on Sunday, December 31. He had visited the websites of Mikio and Yasuko's employers, and also browsed the website of a theatrical group in Tokyo, attempting to use Mikio's bank card to book tickets for an upcoming show. Mikio's computer log also showed that it was used again at approximately 10am, moments before the bodies were discovered.

It appeared the killer had remained in the house until then, near 10 hours after the murders, then fled when Haruko arrived on the scene. Haruko and her daughter, Anne Iriere, who lived next door, said the walls between the two homes had been soundproofed to enable both families to live side by side in peace. However, they did recall hearing a loud thud from the Miyazawa's house at approximately 11.30pm the night of the murders. To figure out what the noise could have been, police conducted a test where they pulled down the ladder that led to Mikio and Yasuko's attic bedroom.

Haruko and Anne confirmed that this had been what they'd heard. Anne said she went to bed at around 1am, but didn't hear any other notable sounds. Japan was generally considered to be a safe country, but the burst of the real estate bubble during the early 1990s had prompted a major recession. This led to high unemployment rates, a decrease in asset value, soaring debt, large-scale illegal immigration, and a shift in traditional values. Recovery was slow, and Japan's once-low crime rate had steadily risen throughout the decade. In the year 2000, the crime rate increased by 12.5% compared to the previous year.

As described by The New York Times, the Japanese police had once had a globally revered reputation for their high morals, ethics, and devotion to duty. They were considered virtually incorruptible and highly efficient in solving crimes. However, in 2000, there had been a series of police scandals across the country involving corruption, negligence, drug abuse, extortion, bribery, hazing of fellow officers, coverups, and sexual assault. The Japanese police force faced heavy criticism that they were losing the fight against crime. As reported by The New York Times, a public opinion poll conducted in early 2000 revealed

that 60% of Japanese citizens said their trust in police was declining, while 45% no longer trusted the police at all. The Miyazawa family murders elevated the public's growing concerns, and the pressure was on for police to make a quick arrest. In an unprecedented move that highlighted the shocking nature of the crime, Superintendent General of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, Takeshi Noda, attended the Miyazawa crime scene in person, telling detectives, Investigators worked to piece together the family's last known movements using witness

statements and technological data. They determined that during the day of Saturday, December 30, the Miyazawa's went shopping in an arcade near Chitose Karasuyama Railway Station, approximately 1.6km north of their home. At around 6pm, they were seen at another shopping centre near Sayijo Gakuenmae Railway Station, 1.8km south of their home. The Miyazawa's arrived home just before 7pm. Yasuko used the home telephone to call her mother before the family ate dinner together.

At 9.38pm, Nina's computer was used to watch a television show online, and at 10.45pm, Mikio logged onto his computer to read his work emails. This was the last recorded action of any family member, with the murders occurring shortly after. The family's friends and relatives were questioned in a bid to establish whether they had any known enemies, or had reported anything suspicious in the lead-up to their deaths. Mikio's colleagues told police that he hadn't been working on anything particularly sensitive or controversial, ruling out the possibility that the murders were connected to his work.

Mikio kept a detailed diary of his daily activities and expenses, and investigators found nothing within to suggest anything troubling was happening in his life. However, in the week leading up to the murders, Mikio had admonished a group of teenagers who were hanging out at the skate park behind their house, telling them off for being loud. And at the same time, he had also confronted a group of young members of the Boso Zoku motorcycle gang who were causing nuisance in the area. Boso Zoku members had a reputation for being violent and dangerous, and were known to carry weapons.

Five days before the murders, Yasuko had complained to her father that someone had been repeatedly parking outside her home, even though there were plenty of other parking spaces available in the area. Two days later, on December 27, a witness cited a middle-aged man walking around the perimeter of the Miyazawa's home, as though he was studying it. On December 29, a young man wearing clothes similar to those left behind by the killer was seen at Sayijo Gakuen Maya Railway Station, which was located next to one of the shopping centres that the Miyazawa's visited the following day.

That same day, a sashimi knife matching the murder weapon was purchased at the shopping centre. This particular knife was one of 1500 manufactured in Japan's Fukui Prefecture in the year 2000. The next day, the day of the murders, the same young male suspect was seen at Sangawa Railway Station, just 1.5km from the Miyazawa's house. Locals reported that between June and December of 2000, stray cats around Soshigaya Park had been found mutilated, with their tails cut off or their skin stripped. This appeared to be a promising lead, but the person responsible for the animal abuse

was later determined to be a bank clerk, who was ruled out in connection with the Miyazawa family murders. Investigators soon learned of three suspicious incidents that had occurred in the early morning hours of Sunday, December 31, shortly after the murders. Just after midnight, a taxi driver had picked up three men near Soshigaya Park and drove them to a nearby railway station. When the men left the cab, the taxi driver noticed several blood stains on the back seat, the biggest of which was approximately 19mm in diameter.

Police tested the stains and determined they were chocolate. In a separate incident at dawn, a woman had been driving past Soshigaya Park when a man jumped in front of her car, lightly brushing it. She stopped and got out to check on the man and to notice the blood on the back of his left hand. Another suspicious incident had occurred at 5.25am on December 31. A man aged in his 30s walked into a medical office located at Tobu Niko Railway Station, approximately 120km north of the Miyazawa's house, seeking treatment for a knife wound

on his hand that was so deep the bone was exposed. Medical staff treated the injury but didn't ask how it was sustained and the man left without leaving his name. As the investigation into the brutal murders continued, a funeral was held for all four members of the Miyazawa family. Niko's mother, Setsuko, was so traumatised that she was unable to walk and had to be carried inside. Yasuko's mother and sister had become so afraid of the house they shared with the slain

family that they left set a guy all together. The situation had left Haruko with a feeling of shame and Ann was plagued by thoughts of suicide. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department established a special task force to focus exclusively on the murders. Given that the killer had left behind an abundance of genetic material, expectations were high that he would be promptly identified. The killer had left numerous fingerprints throughout the Miyazawa's house.

His thumbprint had a distinctive swirl with two lines at the centre that was likened to a pig's nose. Police ran the prints through the Japanese criminal database but didn't find a match. They also tested them against those obtained from local residents, with no success. The unflushed feces in the toilet were compared to the stomach contents of the Miyazawa family members, all of whom had eaten the same food at their final meal. As the feces differed from the stomach contents, it was clear it belonged to the killer. His stool consisted of green beans with sesame dressing.

As this was a popular Japanese dish that is often homemade, it didn't provide any leads. Based on his footprints at the scene, the killer had been wearing a pair of slightly worn-in slasinger-brand tennis or basketball shoes. The shoes were manufactured in South Korea between October 1998 and November 2000 and were one of 4,530 pairs made. They were the equivalent to size 27.5 in Japan or 9 in Australian sizing, which were only ever available to purchase on the South Korean market and had never been sold in Japan. The shoe was likely white, with a gray, white, or blue sole.

The killer's hat was known as a crushestile hat, a name derived from the way that such hats could essentially be crushed down to any size without being damaged, making them easy to fit into backpacks or luggage. It was made of gray wool with a black band around the rim, and the label indicated it was sold after September 21, 1999. Almost 3,500 hats matching this description were sold in Japan between July 1998 and November 2000, with a retail value of around 1900 yen, or 30 Australian dollars. It was predominantly sold by retailer Marufuru Corporation, with primary sales occurring

in the Kanto region of Japan. The killer's green-checkered scarf was 30cm wide, 130cm long, and made of low-quality acrylic fabric. It didn't have a tag or label, so police reached out to the public urging anyone who recognized it to come forward. Local people reported that they had received an identical scarf as a cheap prize or promotional item. One person had received it from a junior high school uniform retailer, another from an arcade

claw machine, and another from a petrol station. The killer's black, lightweight jacket was identified as a unicorot brand air-tech jacket, in size large. In the two months prior to the murders, a total of 82,000 jackets of this type were sold nationwide in Japan, with just over 10,000 sales in Tokyo alone. The jackets retailed between 3900 and 5900 yen, the equivalent to between 60 and 90 Australian dollars at the time, and were sold exclusively by unicorot at their retail stores, online and via mail order.

The jacket's pockets contained grains of sand that had originated from the Miura Peninsula coast, located south of Tokyo. There were also traces of pollen that came from either an ornamental Japanese pomegranate plant or a zelkova tree, a deciduous species belonging to the Elm family. Red leaves from either a zelkova or willow tree were also found, as were traces of bird droppings thought to have come from a sparrow. In addition, soil particles were detected and traced to the province that surrounds South Korea's capital city of Seoul.

The killer's raglan-style sweatshirt was a size large, with a pale grey body and light purple sleeves. It had been sold between August and December of 2000 by the Marufuru Corporation, the same retailer that sold the killer's crusher hat, and was priced at approximately 1900 yen, or 30 Australian dollars at the time. Only 130 raglan sweatshirts of that variety were ever sold throughout Japan. At the time of the murders, it was stocked at four stores in Tokyo, and only ten had been purchased in the city.

Police appealed for anyone who had bought the sweatshirt at one of these four stores to contact them to rule themselves out of the investigation, but they were only able to track down one owner. You may be afraid of reporting this to the police, thinking that if you have this sweatshirt or remember having bought one, you may be treated as a criminal. There is no need to worry about such a thing. The perpetrator took off his sweatshirt and left it at the crime scene. Locating the same sweatshirt now would, therefore, prove that you are not the perpetrator.

Locating the whereabouts of nine other sweatshirts would directly lead us to identify the perpetrator. We need your cooperation on this. The killer had also left behind a pair of adjustable Edwin brand black leather gloves size 36 cm. Given that the murders occurred in the middle of winter and the killer's fingerprints were found throughout the house, it seemed likely he had been wearing them for warmth rather than to avoid leaving prints. 10,755 pairs of these gloves had been sold between 1998 and the year 2000 at two primary

stores. One of which was the Marufuru Corporation, where the crusher hat and raglan sweatshirt had also been purchased. Two plain black handkerchiefs belonging to the killer appeared to have been recently washed and ironed. Over the previous five years, a total of 66,500 matching handkerchiefs had been manufactured and sold by Japanese retail company Muji, which sells a variety of household and consumer goods.

One of the handkerchiefs left at the crime scene had been folded into a triangular shape and had squeezed edges as though the killer wore it as a face mask. The other was unfolded and had a 3 cm hole cut near its centre. Police suspected this one was used by the killer as a makeshift pouch for his knife to protect himself against injury. This method was known to be used by employees at fish processing facilities to protect themselves and allow for a firmer grip when cleaning, scaling and filleting fish. Finally, there was the black and grey hip bag left behind by the killer, known as a

bum bag in Australia or fanny pack in the United States. It was 21 cm wide, 23.5 cm high and 9.5 cm deep, which equated to the approximate size of a B5 notebook. The belt secured to the bag was 83 cm long but had been adjusted to fit a waist measuring between 70 and 75 cm. The bag was old and worn and also came with a shoulder strap so it could be used as a pouchel. It was manufactured in Osaka between 1995 and 1999 with 2,850 sold at discount stores

throughout Japan. Two strands of black hair believed to belong to the killer were found in the bag. They had been intentionally cut rather than having fallen out naturally, with one measuring 2.5 cm and the other 1.5 mm. Also inside were stains from a fluorescent red dye that illuminated when highlighted with a UV light. Police had found a similar fluorescent agent inside the Miyazawa family's garage, yet the garage was locked on the night of the murders with no indication that the killer

had gone inside. This raised the possibility that the killer had been to the house on a previous occasion. Yet the dyes were determined to be unrelated, with the dye inside the bag identified as having come from a popular highlighter pen that could be purchased at most station restores. Like the killer's jacket pockets, the hip bag also contained granules of sand. Some of these contained quartz, with a similar composition to desert sand found near the city of Las Vegas in the United States. Several also contained radioactive monazite, believed to originate from the US state of

California, including near the Edwards Air Force Base in the southwestern Mojave Desert. Other grains were traced to Japan's Miura Peninsula, similar to the sand found in the jacket. Further remnants found in the hip bag were analyzed to reveal tiny glass spheres of barium titanate powder, which is used by skateboarders as a form of grip tape to prevent their feet from slipping off the board. Oils and compounds that had come from a perfume or aftershave were lifted from both the hip bag and handkerchiefs.

By compiling the specific combination of elements, forensic experts were able to determine that the killer had at one point been wearing draka noir. The moderately priced order toilette fragrance was manufactured by French fashion brand Guy LaRouche and had been sold in Japan since 1982. Based on the clothing and forensic evidence obtained from the crime scene, the perpetrator was likely between 15 and 35 years of age, around 170cm tall, of slim build with black or blackish brown hair, and was right-handed. He also had to be agile enough to have exited the house via the bathroom window.

Police believed he either lived alone or with family who wouldn't be suspicious if he was out late at night. It was also possible that he struggled with money and that the crime was financially motivated. Based on several factors, including the traces of grip tape found in the hip bag, the police theorized that the killer could have been part of the group of skateboarders that Mikio confronted in the week leading up to his death. Both California and the Miura Peninsula had a lively skateboarding subculture and a draka noir cologne had been popular with professional skateboarders throughout the 1980s.

At the time of the murders, raglan shirts and hip bags were also commonly worn by skateboarders. Due to the vast amount of physical and forensic evidence available, it was expected that the suspect would be promptly identified, but weeks passed without any major breakthroughs. Neighbors and associates of Mikio and Yasuko were questioned as to whether they had recently traveled to both California and the Miura Peninsula, but none had. On Monday, April 9, 2001, three months after the murders, a stone Oji Zosan statue was found on the side of the road that ran alongside the Sankawa River, west of the Miyazawa family home. This type of statue is known to represent Jizo Bodhisattva, a Buddhist enlightened being

regarded as the guardian of unborn, aborted or stillborn babies and of children who die prematurely. The statue was made of heavy white granite and depicted a child monk praying on a pedestal. It was 59 centimeters tall and weighed 19.5 kilograms. On the bottom of the pedestal was an inscription resembling the Chinese character for the number 6. Investigators believed the statue was significant and that it had been left by the river on either the evening of April 8 or the morning of April 9. They were unsure whether it had been placed at that location by someone with good intentions or if the killer or someone close to him was responsible. Forensic examination of the statue uncovered nothing of significance.

Police distributed 30,000 posters of the statue, appealing for anyone with knowledge about it to come forward and made an additional request for information about the inscription on the bottom. Despite these efforts, no definite link was drawn between the statue and the crimes. By June 2001, six months had passed since the murders and 150 police officers continued to work exclusively on the case. During that time, a total of 21,000 officers had been involved in some form or another and had covered 2,700 potential leads, but the killer was no closer to being identified. The case languished for years despite the amount of time and resources dedicated to solving it and the murderer remained unknown along with his true motive.

In 2003, family, friends and supporters of the Slain family hosted a photography exhibition featuring images of the Mayor's Hours that were returned from police earlier that year. Among the collection was a photo of Nina cuddling her newborn baby brother, Rayi, and another of the family gathered happily around a birthday cake to celebrate Rayi's second birthday. One of the exhibition's organisers said, We want people not to just think about how heinous the crime was, but also how happy the family was in life. Given that the killer's sneakers were sold exclusively in South Korea and the soil particles from his jacket pocket were also traced back to the same country, Japanese investigators

requested that South Korean authorities run the killer's fingerprints through their own national database. They agreed, but no matches were made. In 2006, advanced DNA testing allowed forensic experts to determine the killer's racial profile through anthropological analysis of the bloodstained sweatshirt found at the scene. The DNA didn't match any of the profiles in the Japanese police database, but an ancestral analysis did reveal that the killer's father had a 1 in 13 chance of being Japanese, a 1 in 10 chance of being Chinese, and a 1 in 3 chance of being Korean. The killer's mitochondrial DNA sequence revealed the ancestry on his mother's side

was Adriatic and Mediterranean South European. As the majority of interracial marriages between Japanese and European individuals had only occurred within the past couple of generations, experts believed that the killer was more likely to be continental Asian than Japanese, or that the interracial conception had only occurred in his mother or grandmother's generation. By December 2006, six years after the murder, a total of 140,000 police officers had been involved in the investigation in some capacity. 98 individuals were still under investigation, with police focusing on people who may have been financially motivated to commit the crime, as well as those who may have held a grudge against a member of the family.

One former investigator was convinced that the killer had a particular interest in eight-year-old Nina Miyazawa, as highlighted by the extent of her injuries. It was reported that a young man who frequented the locations where Nina attended ballet and piano lessons had been known to watch her intently and keep track of her movements. Additionally, his genetic ancestry fit the killer's DNA profile, as he had a Japanese father and southern European mother. The former investigator interviewed the suspect and went as far as searching his home and collecting his fingerprints, but the prints didn't match the killers. Also in 2006, freelance journalist Toro Saito published a book titled The Setagaya Family Murder Case, Confessions of Intruders,

claiming she had uncovered the truth about the Miyazawa family murders and the identity of the killer. The book attracted severe criticism from the media and investigators, as it was filled with glaring inconsistencies, including falsified quotes from family members. In response to the book, police chief Takeshi Tsuchida stated, The contents are fundamentally different from the facts in general. From the intrusion to the killing method, the criminals own medical treatment, personal computer operation, escape method, victim's behavior, belongings, fingerprints, etc. Everything is different from the fact. There is a concern that it will have an adverse effect. In December 2007, Yasuko Miyazawa's sister, Anne Irie, published her own book about the murders,

titled If You Can Understand The Meaning Of This Sadness, The Setagaya Case, The Story of Loss and Rebirth. That same month, Japan's National Police Agency announced that a reward of 3 million yen, the equivalent of 30,000 Australian dollars at the time, was available for information regarding the Miyazawa family case. In the following year, it was reported that Japanese police had asked authorities in China, the United States, and some Western countries to provide fingerprint records to compare against their suspect. But it is unclear what progress, if any, was made. At the time the murders were committed, Japan had a 15-year statute of limitations on murder charges,

due to the belief that evidence could be lost or dissipate over time, that witnesses' memories can fade, and the demands for harsh penalties can wane as the feelings of surviving loved ones diminish. In 2009, the statute of limitations was increased from 15 to 25 years, but because the Miyazawa family murders occurred before that time, the new limitations did not apply to their case. This meant that if their killer was not caught by 2015, he could not be prosecuted for the murders. In February of 2009, Mikio's 80-year-old brother Yoshiyuki Miyazawa and Yasuko's sister Ann Iriea, together with a group of 15 other families whose loved ones were victims of unsolved murders, established an association called the Sora No Kai, to help support others in their situation.

Loosely translated, Sora No Kai was a victim of the murder, Sora No Kai means infinite time, alluding to the ongoing grief and uncertainty that bereaved family members were forced to endure. The purpose of the Sora No Kai was to persuade the Japanese government to abolish the statute of limitations on murder altogether, with a statement on the group's website reading, The feelings of our bereaved have never faded in 15 or 25 years. The organization also highlighted that modern improvements in forensic and investigative technology, including advanced DNA testing, meant that evidence didn't

necessarily dissipate over time, and that it had become easier to prove cases in court even after many years had passed. Also supporting the end to the statute of limitations was a group called the National Crime Victims Association, and public support for the cause began to increase. On June 12th, the Sora No Kai gave the Minister of Justice a petition containing 45,000 signatures, with the number soon growing to over 78,000. Their efforts paid off, and in April 2010, Japan abolished the statute of limitations on murder with immediate effect, including, for all existing unsolved cases, where the statute of limitations had not yet expired. Two and a half years later, on September 6th, 2012,

Mikio's 84-year-old father, Yoshiyuki, passed away in hospital after months spent battling pneumonia. Up until his death, Yoshiyuki worked tirelessly to find answers to the questions surrounding the murder of his son's family. Prior to his death, he commented, The culprit may not be arrested while I'm alive, but why did four people have to be killed? I really want to ask the culprit for the real reason, the truth. Former police chief Takeshi Tsuchida, who helped establish the Sora No Kai with Yoshiyuki, told reporters he was remorseful that the case remained unresolved, and expressed his desire for progress. In late December 2014, the reward for information was increased to 20 million yen,

the equivalent to around $207,000 Australian dollars at the time. That same month, Japanese television network Asahi aired a program about the Miyazawa family murders in which a reporter and former member of the FBI used criminal behavioural profiling to uncover clues as to the killer's identity. They deduced that the person responsible was an acquaintance who held a grudge against the family, and implied that Yasuko's sister, Anne, supported their opinion. After the program aired, Anne claimed the show used various production and editing methods to create the illusion that she agreed with their conclusion, when she did not. She lodged a formal complaint to Japan's broadcasting ethics and program

improvement organisation, known as the BPO, alleging that the program misrepresented her. In a subsequent press conference, Anne said, I felt that what I had built was destroyed by this program. It is regrettable as I have accepted every kind of media interview, hoping it will lead to the case being solved. The Asahi network declined Anne's request for an apology, stating that it was simply a difference in opinions. The BPO determined that while the TV program did not damage the social reputation of Anne or the bereaved family or violate their human rights, the content lacked fairness and proper consideration of broadcasting ethics. Anne was pleased that the committee

legitimised her concerns, and the Asahi network agreed they would take the BPO's feedback into consideration in the future. From the onset of the investigation, Mikio's computer records had led the police to believe that the killer had remained inside the family's home until around 10 o'clock the morning after the murders. However, in early 2015, it was announced that the 10am computer activity had likely been triggered by the device's mouse falling onto the floor, rather than someone actively accessing it. Yasuko's mother, Haruko, who discovered the bodies, agreed that it was possible she could have knocked the mouse off Mikio's desk when she moved through the house, although she couldn't remember whether or not this had happened.

It is unclear whether police knew this information earlier on and chose to withhold it from the public, but regardless, it meant that any potential sightings or suspicious movement in the neighbourhood during the earlier hours of that morning gained significance. To mark the 15th anniversary of the murders, on December 30, 2015, investigators gathered out the front of the Miyazawa's home to lay flowers and hold a silent prayer. By this point, almost 250,000 law enforcement officers had worked on the case, and police had received a total of 12,545 pieces of information relating to it. Leads continued to come in, with 324 new pieces of information gathered in 2015 alone, and investigators renewed their vow to find the killer.

To coincide with the anniversary, one of Japan's most famous investigative journalists, using the pen name Fumia Ichihashi, released a book titled, The Setagaya Family Murder Case, 15 Years On, The New Facts. Ichihashi spent several years researching the book, during which he concluded that the killer was a former South Korean soldier, turned killer for hire, identified by the pseudonym Lee Inan. Inan was recruited into the South Korean military at a young age, and was bullied by his superiors, which caused the shift in his behaviour. He was trained in self-defense and taekwondo, and had been undertaking combat and shooting training at a mercenary school, when he met a Japanese man identified as Mr Kanada.

According to Ichihashi, Mr Kanada was the former head of a religious group in Tokyo, who used the mercenary school to recruit young men into his criminal organisation. Kanada had lost a large amount of money due to failed businesses, and began working with the dodgy real estate brokers who specialised in buying homes at discounted rates, and then selling the land to developers for elevated profits. These brokers had reached out to the Miyazawa's, requesting they sell their home to them, instead of receiving the compensation money they borrowed from the government as a result of losing their house to the expansion of Soshigaya Park. The Miyazawa's had refused, prompting Mr Kanada

to hire Lee Inan to intimidate them into accepting the deal. To gain access to the family, Inan allegedly posed as an associate of Mr Kanada's who could provide learning and speech therapy support to six-year-old Rei Miyazawa. He then exceeded his orders by brutally murdering the whole family and attempting to steal their compensation money. In his book, Ichihashi claimed that in 2003 he secretly collected Lee Inan's fingerprints and unofficially compared them to the prints identified at the Miyazawa crime scene, revealing a match. Flight departure and immigration records also showed that the day after the murders, Inan flew to Taiwan from Haneda Airport, located 20km southeast of the Miyazawa's house. He had also

previously travelled to California, which could account for the sand found in the killer's clothing. After the murders, Inan and Mr Kanada allegedly had a falling out, and Inan began working as an assassin in South Korea and the United States, before eventually working in armed groups in the Philippines and then acting as a free assassin. In response to Ichihashi's claims, former police chief Takeshi Tsuchida said, It's 100% nonsense. If the book was true, the criminal would have been caught. It's okay if it was a fictional novel, but I have strong doubts calling it non-fiction. In his book, Ichihashi criticized the media for drip-feeding information to the public over the years, rather than releasing new details as they came to light, which he believed made it

even more difficult for the truth to be exposed. He also severely critiqued the police handling of the case, saying they made several assumptions early on that hindered the investigation. He claimed the number of fingerprints and forensic evidence at the scene led to complacency, as the police assumed the killer would be quickly identified. Moreover, the brutality of the crimes had led them to assume the killer must have been suffering from a mental illness or personality disorder. Consequently, they had focused on patients who had been recently discharged from psychiatric hospitals, which Ichihashi believed was a red herring. Ichihashi thought that the police focused on one possibility at a time before moving on to

the next, rather than conducting a wide-scale investigation that examined a range of possibilities simultaneously. For example, Ichihashi believed that because the killer had eaten a typical Japanese dish before committing the murders and was able to read kanji, police had tunneled vision about his nationality and failed to consider that he may not be Japanese. Following the publication of his book, Ichihashi gave an interview to online newspaper Japan Today, in which he stated, unless there's a miracle and the criminal surrenders himself or his fingerprints match to another crime, I believe there is no chance he will be arrested. As of December 2019, 19 years since the Miyazawa family were murdered, 35 members of Tokyo's

Metropolitan Police Force were still assigned exclusively to the case. Of the 130 raglan sweatshirts sold throughout Japan that matched the one belonging to the killer, police have only been able to track down and rule out 12 owners. The case remains one of Japan's longest-running and most mysterious unsolved crimes, with the streets of Setagaya still featuring signs appealing for information. The 20 million yen reward money is still available, making it the highest cash reward ever offered in Japan. Although former police chief Takeshi Tsuchida retired in 2008, he still works on the case in an unofficial capacity. On the 19th anniversary of the crimes, he told Australian news broadcaster,

the ABC, when I think about the feelings of the victim's families who lost their loved ones all of a sudden, I just couldn't pass on this case to my successors. After working as an officer for 41 years, when I think about the brutality in the way he murdered the four, I just wonder, how could a sane person carry out such an extreme crime? Tsuchida said he remained in close contact with Mikio's mother, Setsuko, paying her regular visits, preparing her meals, and praying at the shrine. The Miyazawa investigation now sits in the hands of Superintendent Manabu Iidae, who remains confident that the killer will be caught. Superintendent Iidae stated,

It is our mission to arrest the criminal who murdered four innocent people, including two young children, and make him atone for his crime. It's an atrocious case rarely seen in Japan's criminal history, and we think solving this case will help prevent similar crimes happening in the future. The former home of the Miyazawa family remains standing on land that now belongs to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Since the murder of the Miyazawa family, the Miyazawa family now belongs to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Since the murders, the house has been subject to a preservation order. But on December 26, 2019, the police issued a demolition notice

as the house is at risk of collapsing. Investigators stated their belief that all possible evidence has been preserved, and there would be no impact on the case if the house was demolished. Yasuko's sister, Anne, disagreed, and filed a submission for police to withdraw their notice of demolition. She told reporters for Japanese daily newspaper the Asahi Shimbun. There definitely are things that can be felt only at the crime scene. I would like people to get a sense of how the Miyazawa family lived their lives. That sense could lead to a break in the case. To gain support, Anne decided to open the house to the public. The family's belongings remained stacked inside cardboard boxes, leaving little room to move around the small house.

Nina and Reiya's height measurements were still marked on the living room wall. The last of which was recorded in August of 2000. Anne told reporters that the size of the home meant there was very little room for the family to flee from the perpetrator, which she believes would have only added to their terror. Quote, The family lived humbly and worked hard. It is heart-wrenching to be in this house. I am still deeply sorry that I could not save them. Roughly a year after the murders, Anne channeled her grief into something positive by creating a picture book titled, The Story of Mishuka the Bear Always Connected.

Using her book, she began running support seminars across Japan for grieving families who were dealing with the loss of a loved one due to crime. Anne said that she had changed from being someone who needed help from others into one who assisted those grieving through their pain. She eventually became a member of the Setagaya Ward Grief Support Study Committee and a part-time lecturer at the Sophia University Grief Research Institute. Mikio's mother, Setsuko, still keeps a shrine to Mikio Yasuko, Nina and Reiji at her home, displaying photographs of the family along with the display captain full of Nina and Reiji's toys. She prays for the family often and hopes that the killer will one day be brought to justice.

In an interview with the ABC in December of 2019, Setsuko said she was deeply saddened by the fact that her husband had passed away before the case was solved. Commenting, That troubled us the most. Now that he's gone, I feel I have to do the hard work myself. Reflecting on the murders she lamented. I always wonder how the children would have grown up. My biggest regret is that I never got to see them grow up.