A Bizarre Murder Mystery – By George Braine
Twenty-six years ago, on November 13, 1999 (Valentine’s Day), a 32-year-old woman was stabbed to death at her home in Nagoya, Japan, in front of her 2-year-old son. Namiko Takaba’s husband, Satoru, had been out at work. Namiko had been stabbed multiple times on her body and throat. Blood at the scene indicated that the killer may have sustained injuries.
Namiko and Satoru Takaba with their son
Image Source : reddit.com
Although he and his son moved out, Satoru kept the apartment where the crime had taken place to preserve the bloodstains and bloody footprints. Over the years, he paid more than 22 million Yen ($1,400,000 or Rs. 42 million) as rent. Not stopping at that, Satoru campaigned for the abolition of the statute of limitations on murder and helped make it a reality. Every year, on the day of the murder, he would go to the nearby railway station and distribute flyers, asking people for information.
Over the course of 26 years, the police interviewed more than 5000 people regarding the murder. Last year, they narrowed the field to several hundred people who had known Namiko or Satoru. One was 69-year-old Kumiko Yasufuku, who had attended high school with Satoru, where both had belonged to the tennis club. Kumiko was placed on the high priority list and questioned repeatedly by the police since this August.
Then, after refusing repeatedly to submit to a DNA test, Kumiko walked into a police station on October 31 and confessed to the crime. She is married with children. It emerged that she had once sent Satoru Valentine’s chocolates with a note saying “I like you”. Apparently, Satoru did not reciprocate.
Kumiko Yasufuku during her high school days
Image Source : facebook.com
Years later, at a class reunion, Satoru had told Kumiko that he was married. Apparently, no negative reactions, no further conversations, no attempts at stalking occurred. Nevertheless, one day, decades after her disappointment, Kumiko entered her old crush’s home and killed his wife, whom she had never met before. At her confession, Kumiko had stated that she lived in constant fear and felt severely depressed on every anniversary of her crime.
This is an ongoing investigation. More information leading to the crime and a true motive are likely to emerge.
Japan does not lack for bizarre murders. A former Prime Minister assassinated at a street corner with a homemade gun; the decapitation of a lover in a motel by the female partner, aided and abetted by her father, a psychiatrist; numerous cases of strangers stalking and stabbing to death female victims, including schoolgirls; arson at a psychiatric clinic that killed 27 people; and another arson attack which killed 36 people at a animation studio, besides others too numerous to mention.
Right now, Japan is gripped by Kumiko Yasufuku’s crime, and the lengths to which Satoru Takaba went to ensure that it was not forgotten.
