The amount of evidence is pretty wild, when you think of the crimes that have been solved with far less evidence. Makes me feel better that at least the case is still active
You guys need to keep in mind that this happened in the year 2000 and the police here in east asia and sea during that time is really bad. Even until now, most police in the sea area are still far behind in technology and training.
The house was a duplex, the grandma lived next door, not 3 minutes away. All she heard next door during the murder was a thud against the shared wall and she never forgave herself for not checking on it.
The killer walking in through the front door isn't as far fetched when you consider that leaving your doors unlocked is not uncommon in Japan. He could've literally just opened the door and let himself in. The reason why he took his shoes off could simply be because walking around barefoot makes less noise.
@@one.2622 He wasn't stabbing people when he walked in. Most likely he wanted to be silent not to alert the family some random guy just walked in. You don't want the people in the house to greet you with a bat to the face.
Watching at 4am and as soon as he said "could the killer have walked through the front door" my dad walked out the door downstairs. Scared thes shit out of me lol
This is what I figured too. I'm reasonably certain the killer is non-military but a military fanboy. Probably has lots of other thrift store military gear and airsoft guns, that kinda thing. Probably couldn't qualify to own a gun under Japanese law because, among other things, it requires a mental health exam. And if he was capable of obtaining a gun illegally he would have used it, so that rules out any organized crime connection.
@@Jbsutt we don’t know how much sand there was. Could have been a few grains caught in the seams. Considering you don’t usually wash a fanny pack, someone could have bought it from a thrift store and then used it in this crime, while it still having trace evidence inside it. Totally plausible to me. Maybe that’s part of the reason he left it, planting evidence that he knew would not lead back to him.
I also believe there's a connection to the military but the Japanese news reports all say the sand is from south western USA and nothing more specific but the Edwards space is in that area they suspect the sand to be from. So it could be completely unrelated to the military.
everything about this case is heartbreaking but that photo of setsuko sitting in front of the daruma dolls really got to me for some reason. something about this cute little granny having to grieve alone over so many family members without closure really fucks me up. on the slightly brighter side, i did a little digging on the photo and found out those dolls were a gift to setsuko from a former detective on the case named mitsuko matsumori. she's retired now but she still has a relationship with setsuko to this day and provides personal support for her.
I don’t think it’s particularly strange that he took his shoes off. Asians are taught to do it our entire life and he probably just reflexively kicked his shoes off as soon as he entered the home.
The strangest thing about the shoes is surely that he left them behind! Why would he do that? Were they covered in too much blood? I find it hard to believe he was the same shoe size as the man he killed. Also - do police know exactly which clothes he stole from the male victim, so they could provide a description of the way he was dressed when he left the house?
Good presentation of the case. Some thoughts: • Couldn’t DNA facial reconstruction be used as well as relative DNA in GEDmatch or other existing databases? • Isn’t it likely that the killer left the country shortly after the murders? Possibly to Korea or the US. • What clothes did he change into? Did he bring them with him or did he simply steal the farther’s clothes? • How did the killer get to the house and how did he leave? Is it likely that he had a vehicle of some sort? • Are really all US army personnel trained in hand-to-hand combat? Aren’t there civilian jobs at an army base too? Or family members? • Could he have been high on something? Apart from the horrific crimes, especially towards the children, the part with the file in the bathtub and things stuffed in the toilet stands out as a quite strange behavior. Did the blood analysis turn something up? • Could it have had something to do the father’s activity online? Perhaps even quite a long time before the murders? Perhaps it took a long time for the killer to find the father, presuming he was the intended target. Well, with that much manpower I guess the police already asked those questions. The cases from Japan, and Asia in general, are quite tricky for an European like me. There are often cultural undertones that I’m simply not aware of, making it very hard to fully comprehend the complete picture.
Yes, US personale are trained in basic hand to hand. Every last military personal goes through "basic" training. Partially because anyone in the military can find themselves in a live or die situations. A cook at a camp in the middle east can find themselves having to fight to survive. There's actually been a few battles where the support military people were thrown into the fighting and managed to stop a complete route, the germans did it in world war 2 in one of the battles for example. So every soldier is put through basic training to give them basic skills needed to survive in the military and at war. Also, pretty sure every service member has their DNA in a system. So when the Japanese ran it, I'd assume they'd be able to get access to it, via a warrant or something. But ultimately I don't believe the person is military. Firstly the only "link" is sand taken from a military base. That just means he could've visited it, maybe is related to a service member, or any number of things. Heck he could've just bought sand from there, or the item had the sand when he bought it for all we know. So I think this is just a dead end theory. There's nothing to suggest military. The attack was sloppy, and he struggled to kill people in their sleep. That doesn't scream soldier to me. That screams someone who has never seen combat.
@@NeiasaurusCreations I agree. It doesn’t seem like a soldier. The alleged place of origin of the sand can also simply be a mistake. Mistakes do happen all the time.
@@Legionmint7091 Yup. Or could be there from an prior owner. It's why I discount the idea entirely. With both DNA and fingerprints, a soldier would instantly be flagged as both DNA and finger prints are on file of soldiers. Same with criminals. I think the person knew them, and then left the country for Korea. It'd explain why he "dropped off the face of the world", as well as why no DNA would be available. It'd also explain why no more cases like this linked to this one has been found. Because if it's across two countries that have a historical beef stemming from genocide and oppression during ww2, it's unlikely the two would work together. I don't think this is the first or last kill by the person. Killing an entire family is a big thing. Killers usually start small, and work there way up.. And once a killer kills entire families, they usually don't stop.
@@NeiasaurusCreations I agree, again, with most of what you wrote. However, since the motive can’t be established we have no clue as to why the entire family was murdered. Family annihilations are typically committed by a family member, or possibly by organized crime to set an example for others, none of which seems to fit in this case. The cases when entire families are murdered are in themselves extremely rare, and it’s even more rare that the perpetrator is someone outside of the immediate family. What talks against your theory that the purp has murdered before is his exceptional sloppiness, leaving so many forensic evidence behind. That, in my book, indicates a young and/or poorly educated amateur rather than an organized serial killer or a contract killer. The fact that he stayed and ate several cans of ice cream and drank ice tea could simply mean he had the munchies, which possibly could point to a drug induced psychosis. That, in turn, could explain both the ferocious murders, his sloppiness as well as his very odd behavior afterwords. If this theory holds water, he may not even clearly remember what he did. There’s a possibility that he’s not a violent nature under normal conditions, thus is someone who wouldn’t stick out as a possible suspect to anyone. He may never kill again as far as we know. There are plenty of cases with people who have been caught many years after committing horrendous murders, but they never broke the law again in their entire life. And this being Japan, which has a very high suicide rate, he may even be dead, and no one made the connection.
@@Legionmint7091 I think drugs had to have been involved. It'd explain why it was so sloppy. Also killing before doesn't make a person a super killer or anything. Especially if they're a blood lust frenzy type. But there was some level of thought put into it as well. He bought the knife ahead of time, that day in the morning. So he knew likely from the start of the day, he was going to kill them. So perhaps he took some drugs either out of enjoyment, or to help with the nerves. The other main thing is, mental health. I can very easily see the person not being on drugs, but some type of mentally ill person. The nature of the attack, and the post attack actions come off as just off the walls. I honestly don't have any answers, but when I look at this, I can't help but feel this person didn't just do this one thing, and drop off the face of the map.
I don't think this was personal. This case reminds me a lot of the Viscalla and Hinterkaifeck axe murders. I think this is a case of someone with a serious mental health issue combined with a strong predisposition towards violence. The attack was probably random which speaks to why it has yet to be solved despite a strong interest in a resolution. Hopefully, with the DNA, they will be able to use genetic genealogy to identify the perpetrator.
@@oldacc1911if we assume the killer was indeed just a crazy person, it could be literally just curiosity, boredom... anything, the simplest answer is generally the truth
Yep. If you want to get away with murder (which you shouldn’t, if you’re a normal person with empathy) then you kill someone that you have no connection to. It makes it extremely difficult to track the person down- even DNA needs something to be compared to, and if that person was never previously arrested 🤷🏻♀️ it can be tough.
@@renandmrtns I completely agree. Boredom and curiosity combined with a lust for violence and the family's home so happen to be in a rather remote area of the district and city. I think the killer left the grandmother alive either so that there is someone to report the crime so as to taunt the police or that he was not aware that there was one more family member left. The latter further suggests that this was neither a work-related crime nor a personal vendetta against the family, but more so a random act of violence. I'm glad the 15-year statute of limitation in Japan is not applied to this case because that is one of the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard from a country, especially a country like Japan. I really hope the killer is found one day.
@@OpalLeigh Agreed and this is a very very deeply rooted issue in Japan's justice system. They rather rely heavily on suspect's confession to murders rather than actual evidence backing their search for the murderer. There are so many cases where the Japan police caught the wrong guy but forced them to confess just so they can tell the media that they have solved the case.
The fact that he was former military wouldn't have made him an expert in hand to hand combat. He potentially would've had some training depending on his role and country he served with, but soldiers aren't rushing at the enemy with a knife to get an epic quickstab B-hop kill. They're typically engaging an enemy at medium to long range with, y'know, a rifle. If he was unfamiliar with how to operate a firearm then I'd say he probably wouldn't be military, but the fact that he wasn't an expert with knives, especially if he was *former* military, doesn't prove or disprove anything. Not to mention that he clearly held some kind of grudge against the family, and may have even known them personally, so it's perfectly reasonable to assume this was likely a crime of passion, and I can't imagine you're thinking back to your CQC training while murdering a family in their own home.
The point he was trying to make was that there'd be SOME level of competency in fighting if he was military. In everyrole for the US, you have to go through basic training, and learn to fight. Just because someone is sent to a non-combat role doesn't mean they won't ever need hand to hand training. He points out the person struggled to kill people who were sleeping, and defenseless, and likely physically weaker then most military service people. And that the attack seemed to show a LACK of experience with actual hand to hand combat. So I sincerely doubt it's former US military, as good of a story as that'd be, it just doesn't seem very likely. Having sand from a military base doesn't mean a person is indeed military. And since the attack suggests the person lacked combat experience. Also, wouldn't their DNA be on record if they were military? I'm pretty sure the Japanese could've secured a warrant to run the DNA through US military databases for a match. But they didn't, so it seems to me they never really took the military theory seriously as investigators. Or maybe they did check the DNA through military data and found no matches, which would further weaken that theory. I'd say this case has very little to actually go off, despite having so much evidence. A generic common description of his racial standing and hair color doesn't really help here. No witnesses, no idea at all of who it is, what he actually looks like beyond some minor things. No idea where he came from or where he went. No idea how the attack even took place with multiple theories kinda make sense, but none truly perfectly fit. And if you come away from something with more questions then answers, then I'm not convinced we should be making assumptions based on such weak evidence as sand from a specific place.
Not saying he was military but this ''can't imagine you're thinking back to your CQC training while murdering a family in their own home'' i think is wrong. the whole point of training is for it to become second nature. You are supposed to remember is life threatening situations. So i do think he would remember training while doing it. once you learned a more effective way of doing something you are not doing it the worst way again
@@NeiasaurusCreations former military hurrr...as I can only speak for myself & what I experienced, navy does not teach u any cqc or fighting of any sort as 'basic training' or at all , unless your 'rate' (job) requires it...and that's people like: SEALS, SWICK, VBSS, MP, prolly a few others, but, like, 98% of Navy gets Zero combat training....
@@NeiasaurusCreations only people like, 'Jason Bourne', highly trained 'ghost' aka, assassin, don't exist...amiright? A file was taken...how do they know? What file? ...was that the one the dude put into the toilet?
The document part of the story is the most mysterious part of the story and the fact that Cadaber doesn't cover it much is beyond me What even was in that document!!? The fact that he literally pissed and shat on them really makes me think this guy really hated the family for some sort of job releated reason
Admittedly, it's not much to go off of, but the document thing made me think that it could be like the Skylar Deleon case, who turned out to be a hired assassin according to their accomplice in the murder of Tom and Jackie Hawks.
The killer may simply have done that with the document as a red herring to confuse police about motive. Pulling out the document made it look personal/targeted, when in my view it's more likely to be a fairly random 'thrill kill' by a stranger. The couple both worked from home - he was a consultant for a London based company and she was a primary school teacher, so this was unlikely to be a work related crime.
In Japanese forums they say the killer hid from the ground floor windows as he went through the documents. The documents were store on the ground floor and he most likely went through them on the toilet and bathroom to be as close as possible to his exit route which was the window he came in from. So they landed in the bathtub and toilet.
@@glamdolly30 yeah, really feels like that. If the documents had any incriminating evidence against them, the intruder would've kept them when leaving. And that wouldn't even look suspicious. Just someone who has to bring some stuff to the office in the morning.
Military doesn't necessarily mean hand to hand combat skills. Depending on the branch and your job, you might not even see combat at all and just get a desk job. Both my parents were military and they don't have hand to hand combat experience. At most they were taught how to fire particular guns and just be in good physical shape... which doesn't equate to fighting experience.
I've said this again and again, but soldiers have their DNA in a database. AS soon as they ran that DNA, it'd flag up. That tells me he's likely not military. The attack was also frenzied and sloppy with the person having no experience or skill with combat, further reason to doubt it. The link in is literally just sand from a military base. Nothing else. And to me, with all the other factors, like them having his DNA but not getting a hit says he isn't military.
This is true. Unless they're some kind of SOC or SOF force or (rare) in a shit hot unit that takes martial arts seriously, average schmuckatelli is worthless. We have MCMAP but it's more of a meme than anything. A blue belt in bjj would destroy a tabbed MAI. It just comes down to the hours it takes to belt up in bjj or get proficient in boxing vs the hrs trained to get mcmap belts. Mcmap is expedited because we have more pressing shit to do.
The Mother lived virtually next door to the family, not 3 minutes away! They were two houses joint together. She even heard a crash that woke her up around the time the killer would have been inside the house (possibly the Father being thrown down the stairs) but didn't think much of it and went back to sleep.
Sounds like a lone psychopath. Not motivated by money or robbery. Family didn't seem to have enemies.The brutal nature of the killing and the odd crime scene.
This channel is part of a small handful of creators that I am 100% engaged throughout each and every video. Normally, I like to watch/listen to true crime or mystery content while I am working on the computer. I usually alt + tab back and forth between the videos and whatever project I happen to be working on at that time. Upon seeing a new video from Cadaber, I know that I just need to put everything else aside and just focus on the content!
How about the documents? I have seen this case before but never saw that part going into details. He apparently opened a drawer and looked for some documents, then he found one and destroyed it. Was that random or did that document had a purpose? Could it even be the whole reason? What did the father worked on?
Well he probably was taking the documents from the ground floor and was reading through them as close to the escape route as possible: the bathroom with the window. And he went through them to maybe find money or something or just for his pleasure.
He brought with him a sashimi knife, which was inappropriate for this type of use, and this is why he cut his hand. He broke the knife and had to use the ones in the house. Not the mark of a pro.
what’s even more crazy than the fact that this person just straight up vanished is that he went about the crime scene like he knew that was what would happen. I mean, yeah he could have been a dumb bad murdererer leaving behind hella evidence, but idk. the careless level of it all just gets at me.
The quality of the video and audio is good. One suggestion though: I'd run the audio through a de-esser. You have a nice voice, but the shrillness of the sound that comes anytime you say something with an s in it can be a bit distracting. Love the content.
One thing definitely stands out to me is the savage way they were attacked which screams crime of passion. A knife as well as strangling someone are considered more "intimate" forms of killing bc its very up close and personal, as well as inflicting a lot more pain on the victims than just a quick shot to the head. I wonder if a possible affair by either the wife or husband was ever considered...might also explain the sand if it was a soldier who was stationed there and wound up having an affair with one of them. It's a sad story for sure and I hope the family will get justice one day.
The issue is there's no reason to believe he's military. They have DNA, service members, especially US service members have their DNA on file. The moment they have his DNA and ran it through the database, it'd have a match on file if it was military. Service members also KNOW their DNA is on file. So would likely not leave so much DNA behind, which can be used to easily identify them. The lack of care about DNA to me says the guy knew he had no DNA on any database. Thus he wouldn't need to worry about leaving DNA behind. It also suggest the killer wasn't the most organized or careful. But I have this worrying thought the guy has killed after. Ahnilating an entire family isn't something you just wake up one morning and do. And most killers that kill 4 people, tend to continue to kill. Yet our man dropped off the face of the world, and has not been caught in anything. Remembering that if you got caught for another crime, they'd run your DNA, and put that into a database too. So when they go back to retest the DNA like they seem to, if the same DNA was found at another crime, or someone was arrested with it, they'd get a match. So what happened to him? Did he leave the country? Does he have more victims? How is there so much evidence, yet nothing that even remotely points to a suspect? More questions then answers. And it bugs me. Also the odd nature of what he did after the attacks suggests he might've been on drugs. It might also explain why he decided in a spur of the moment to carry out the attack. Because the entire thing is so sloppy and frenzied I don't think there ever was a plan. I think the person knew the family, was hoped up on drugs, and something triggered him to go crazy. But by that same token, there clearly was SOME level of planning since he bought a knife ahead of time. Which makes the entire thing even more confusing. Did he buy the knife planning to use it? Or did he also do that on an Impulse?
@@NeiasaurusCreations good fucking point about the perp buying the knife en route to the scene...like, yeah...was it really a crime of passion or..... 🤔
@@wilz3346 Yeah, it comes off as a mix of a frenzied impulse kill, but with some premeditation in there too. It makes deciphering the motive a lot harder. Especially if the person was on drugs, it'd explain the odd behavior after the kill, and why it was both premeditated and impulsive at the same time. It was such a sloppy crime scene that I can't think this was a highly organized affair. This was definitely very personal, stabbings being a very intimate way of killing people.
Love the video, I just had something to interject on when you said "if the suspect was prior military he would have known how to handle hand to hand combat". I'm currently in the marine corps and I'd comfortably say we have the best mixed martial arts instruction out of all of the branches, and even then, I firmly believe it would be a far cry to say that most of us are proficient in hand to hand combat, the classes we take are voluntary and aren't really ongoing, when you plan to get your next belt you pretty much allocate 2 hours a day for about 2 weeks to do the course and its taught in a similar way you'd learn in a high school class, they tell you a move name, they do it, then you do it, and then rinse and repeat for the next move, and you do this until you test out for your next belt. So what I'm trying to get at is that, even the marines who have black belt, more often than not will just go through the course, learn a bunch of moves in a short period of time and kinda forget most of what you learn and do nothing with it after they get their belt. no one really stays consistantly on top of their knowledge because there is no reason to. So to loop this around to the beginning of my point, you said the person responsible had sand from Edwards AFB in his bag, meaning more than likely he was/is in the airforce, or even just a civilian contractor working for the airforce (makes sense since theres also an AFB in Japan as well), the airforce from my knowledge, has no martial arts training what so ever, so to say that the suspect should be knowledgeable in hand to hand combat doesnt really make sense when you look at it from that aspect. But yeah, that was my 2 cents, I dont know why that point struck me so hard lol.
Felt the same when he said that about the combat training & military..the navy has zero combat training unless your rate requires it...so like a few percent, tops, pilots included...
If you have a knife and the other person doesn't, why would you need training in hand to hand combat?! This theory seems to have arisen because the killer's footprints show he took sideways steps, backed up to a wall to ambush the victims. That's surely just common sense and doesn't necessarily indicate any military training! Once he had taken out the only threat in that house - the other adult male - killing the sleepy, unarmed woman and her children, all in their pyjamas, was shooting fish in a barrel.
I think he matches this profile, he was trained to kill so he could stab without hesitation but he still failed in disposing of the father without suffering a major cut wound and breaking his weapon. Hardly someone who is good with a knife, but definitely someone who has gotten basic training with one and in taking lives like a soldier.
He ate several cups of Ice cream? The father heard thuds coming from upstairs and as he wanted to turn a corner to go upstairs, he was ambushed? This must've been multiple people. Can't convince me otherwise
I wish you'd gone more into the background stuff to explain potential motives. What was the father's profession, had he made enemies, involved in a business deal gone wrong, that kind of things.
Me too. If either or both of the adults were out that day, perhaps they caught the attention of a drugged and/or paranoid individual who misiidentified them, felt threatened, bought a knife,, and followed them home. We just don't have any info on who the victims were (besides a family), where they were that day, when and where they had traveled previously, etc.
@@OffRampTourist The killer can't be a druggie - forensics would have picked that up from his blood, hair and stool samples. No drugs or alcohol in his system, and they could even tell he was a non-smoker! The motive was unlikely to be work related. The couple both worked from home, the husband for a London-based marketing company, and the wife was a primary school teacher.
Hey! Just a thought: What if he’s former military…but just non-combat? My relative is actually half Japanese, and has been in the Air Force for decades. He was actually stationed in Japan for awhile; he’s been at Edwards AFB for as long as I’ve been alive, though. But he doesn’t do any combat - he actually works on the engineering side, of the airplanes. So, if the murderer had a non-combat military background, that could leave him with a very unusual blend of military head-knowledge, yet no combat experience to. So, he could do calculated things that point to him having knowledge, but actually carry it out in an amateurish way.
……LOL ok, when you got to the part about how the suspect is half European and half Japanese (or Korean), I….may have rewound to the date it happened and done that math to make sure it was NOT, in fact, my uh mild-mannered uncle on a military trip to Japan around then.. 😂😅
@@DannyD-lr5yg There's nothing at all to suggest he is. The attack clearly wasn't very uber competent in it's execution. None of the clothes he was wearing is military, especially US military stuff. The only tie in is sand in his bag. Which could've been there from any number of methods, and heck it might've been there from BEFORE the killer even owned the bag. So literally nothing about this screams military or exmilitary. To me the attack seems much more likely to be someone the man new, and was local to the area. I believe he absolutely knew the victims. I also am extremely worried that he's likely to kill again. You don't just ahnilate an entire family and disappear. So either he's dead, left the country, or there has been more murders that just haven't been connected yet. Also another thing that puts me off the military theory is the DNA. Service members have their DNA on file. And if a country has reason to suspect US military involvement, they can actually get the DNA ran through this as long as they can show some level of reasonable credibility to the idea. So the fact the DNA was ran dealt with so extensively and nothing links it to a service member further deflates this idea to me. The only thing I can think of is they never approached the US about running the DNA, because they didn't have a very strong or credible reason to do such. Which if it's so weak they don't even take the theory seriously, I'm not sure we should, either. All in all, I'm left with more questions then answers, but the one thing I'm almost certain of, is the person was absolutely not military of any form. US or Japanese.
@@r.r.r.r.r.r.r. not at all in the navy. I had to have what is called a 'special request-chit' just to have a pocket-knife...that 'chit' simply being a small note from some chief saying I could carry a small ass blade, in case I get stopped by some power-tripping-sweet-heart... I can only speak Fer da navy, however.
@@NeiasaurusCreations A theory I have seen is actually related to the overlap between the skater and surfer scene, and the proximity to certain common surfer areas to the military base in California. So if we wanted to go onto the 'psycho skater' theory, it still works if he was also a surfer and maybe it was a big coincidence.
@@r.r.r.r.r.r.r. Your example isn't as strong as you think it is. Non-combat personnel in the military, which do exist, the military is more than just soldiers, don't *always* get combat training because they aren't meant to be in combat. Soldiers' sparse use of knives despite being trained to use them is different to people in the military who literally aren't there to fight. It largely depends on which country you're talking about, too.
With all this evidence, it points to the killer being someone that is not only well-known but powerful, either personally or vicariously through a relative/employer. Whoever he is it's someone the Japanese justice system is not willing to pursue.
250000 cops, though, and all the other ludicrously high stats. If they wanted to throw the investigation, they could have gotten away with a _much_ less expensive façade and still appear credible.
The parts that most stuck out to me were, they seemed to be let in. They had a calculated plan. They were sloppy with the killings, which by nature seemed like a crime of passion, and yet it was planned with the method seeming to just be frenzied and quick, as if they were just trying to take the family out and were desperate to do so. The files destroyed brings a lot of that together for me. Something seems to be covered up by the killer. As if something in those files pertained to them or an event. Those files speak to me more than anything else, with the quick desperation of trying to kill the entire family quickly, no matter what it took, being close second.
The documents may have just been a deliberate red herring by the killer, to make police think it was a personal, targeted crime when it was actually a fairly impulsive, stranger 'thrill kill'.
If I were in that position and had to destroy the documents, I wouldn't to it there. I would get them and leave and destroy them later. He went out in the early morning, possibly disappearing into rush hour like another salaryman who has to go to work.
I think what’s making this case so difficult to solve is that the perp isn’t born and raised there. I feel he either had moved there recently and or moved away soon after. Maybe a serial killer from another country even. Or someone temporarily working or studying there. I feel they should be checking all Interpol and few other countries databases as well, first and foremost South Korea and America. If I had to guess the bag that contained sand from the US military base was most likely someone else, probably a parents. So could be that he’s from or has some ties to America. Either way it’s a crazy case. Thankfully japan abolished its 20yr statue of limitations so this person can still be held accountable!!
I agree - I sense that's why he was so confident of getting away with it, he wasn't a Japan resident, and was probably returning to his home country imminently.
Is it just me or foe the crime feel weirdly personal in a way? The intruder comes in, kills a whole family, rummages through their food and proceeds to eat their ice cream, play on the computer, not only use their bathroom, but then to also use his own bodily fluids to ruin a specific document in the family home. I don’t know it’s just weird why would some regular intruder kill a whole family, then stay several hours to not even try and hide any evidence, but just play around the house.
Agreed, 20 years on it's surprising forensic experts haven't explored the latest genealogy methods of identification using all the DNA samples he left behind. There seems to be strong links to Korea in the killer's clothing and DNA - I wonder if he wasn't planning to leave the country (maybe returning to his home in Korea or the US), and committed the crime just before he left, confident he wouldn't be caught. I keep reading allegations the Japanese police were incompetent in their investigation and that's the reason he hasn't been caught after 22 years. I hope that isn't true. If the killer fled to another country, it would make the crime far harder to solve and require some excellent police work.
Arent DNA databases either based on priors which could be unlikely for this suspect, or 23andMe? I dont think 23andMe is that big in Japan, so dunno if it would be as effective. Like you could find distant relatives in America, if he is American that is.
I think way too much weight is being put on the origin of the sand. I cannot find the exact details of analyses carried out anywhere, but I have a Master's in geology and I find it very hard to see how it would be possible to pinpoint the location of the sand to a particular military base. These results will likely be based on trace-element geochemical analysis of the sand and in certain cases (depending on the specifics of the local geology) this can indeed provide good constraints on the origin of the sand, but there is still a limit to these constraints. The geochemistry of sand is specific to the rocks the sand came from rather than the in-situ location of the sand so the geochemistry of sand inside a military base isn't going to be different to the geochemistry of sand outside of a military base. Sand can also (obviously) be mobilised and transported by winds. The point is that claiming the sand comes from a specific military base (as opposed to the region the military base is situated in) is an extraordinary claim and I would be skeptical by default in the absence of the details of said claim. If you do some googling, you find contradictary claims about this sand. Some websites report that it comes from that base (without any references), but other websites instead report that it simply came from the Mojave Desert (although, again, without any references). But this latter claim is much more believable (because it certainly is possible to fingerprint sand to a particular desert) so whilst it can be said with a very high degree of certainty that the perpetrator had been to the US, and likely that region of the US, I would be highly skeptical of the claim that the perpetrator had to have been on a US military base.
Most soldiers are not good in hand-to-hand combat, as claimed in the video. I mean a lot of them were training infective martial arts until recently maybe some of it work on inexperienced people, but I would not call most soldiers good in hand-to-hand combat that's just not true, it's not like they got a couple of years of MMA training the whole point is to kill with weapons. Also, I guess there weren't many foreigners in that time, so it would explain things, I would also say the chance of violence are bigger with military personnel than the average Japanese citizen, a lot of young people who chose a carer in the US military service, you have to expect killing based on their history since WW2, not to mention there is a lot Eastern European and Korean living in the USA.
If they found sand from a military base in the US, maybe they should check on any Japanese and Korean soldiers who received some training in the US in the recent years. They don't need to stick with only soldiers but also contractors, etc.
@@Xeidasx Finger prints AND DNA. Service members have their shit on record. So the guy isn't a criminal, a service member, or anyone that'd have been fingered printed or had a DNA database tie in. Which suggest a citizen who probably knew the victim.
@Caleb OKAY I doubt it. There's literally no reason to suggest that at all. Sand being in a place doesn't mean anything. It could've gotten there in a few dozen ways, including buying the bag and it already being there. There's absolutely NO evidence that suggests the person is military, ex military, family of military. That's just fantasy wishful thinking, and a desire for a more spicy story. I refuse to indulge things that have no merit to it.
The Japanese news never talked about any air force base... They always say south western America and that's it... So sadly it's a good thought from you but the sand doesn't indicate anything
i’m really confused about the idea that he entered through the front door. the shoe impressions found outside the window were a match with the shoes left inside the house. so if the window wasn’t his entrance but instead was his point of exit, how did the shoes that he left behind match the impressions made when he supposedly fled???? that’s the part that’s tripping me up lol. and the order of the attacks/where they were in terms of the levels of the house. did he have two identical pairs of shoes?? if you’re committing a crime, why would you wear identical shoes when fleeing that would match the profile of a murder suspect?? especially if he’s going through the trouble of changing his clothes entirely.
Maybe he grab the shoes got too the exit point put them on too make the prints,then put back the shoes back in the front door and went out the front door too confuse people that all I got too be honest
As someone that once lived near Edwards AFB, I can tell ya, it's just as likely if not more so that the suspect was working in agriculture or uh... substances. If he was military, it would have been Air Force, likely in engineering or similar high level stuff. Or, perhaps even more likely (as someone else pointed out), the dirt in his bag could have been there from whoever owned it before him. Maybe he picked up all the clothes at some boutiquey thrift shop (hence the weirdly "rare" items) and they didn't bother to shake out the bag before they sold it. Maybe he just went camping. Who knows? At any rate, it's not nearly enough to point in any one direction.
That's interesting and a great insight^^ in the Japanese news they say it's sand from south western America and not specific Edwards AFB. Is it possible that the base has different sand than the surrounding areas?
Apparently the park behind the home was going to be developed and that's why the Setagaya's neighbors were moving so quickly. My brain instantly went to "yakuza jirage operation ordered hit on the family" once I read that. Jirage operations involed yakuza threatening or bribing residents and small businesses owners to vacate in order to sell the land or invest in future developments on it. If the Setagaya's weren't moving out fast enough, or the father was adamant about not moving, this would account for so much because they were inadvertently haulting the development of the park which pissed someone off. Someone who had alot riding on this development. The yakuza's involvement alone would account for why the case is still stalling despite the massive amounts of evidence. They bribe corrupt law enforcement officials frequently. If anyone's ever played Yakuza 0, that story is based upon the actual jiage operations.
This guy doesn’t seem like a professional killer tho. Not someone an organisation would trust to carry out a murder of an entire family. But I do agree it’d explain why this guy was so careless since he knew he’d be protected
@@elspethschuyler685 The reason I know about the operations is because I did a final research paper and presentation for an upper level elective on Japanese society in college. For context was major is Japanese and I've lived there before. What shocked me most about the research was how much corruption goes on with Japanese law enforcement and goverment officials. The reason they were successful with bribing officials was due to "Japan's Lost Decade" which lasted from the 1990s to the early 00s (murders took place during that period). The economy was slowed down to a point where ppl were overworked and under immense pressure to keep jobs because it wasn't easy finding good paying jobs, so some bad apples in law enforcement fell victim to temptaion. So eventhough the hitman was sloppy af, it didn't matter because at the end of the day, they could (and most likely have continued to) ensure that the case would never be solved.
Didn't the family accept an offer for their home and the money was already in their bank account as one theory was the killers motive was their money 💷
He could have American military parents. The thought that he had clothes that were made in Korea. Being that at one point his parents were stationed there at Osan AB, they could also have been stationed at Edwards AB and gone hiking in the surrounding region. Explaining the sand. As well as being stationed in Yakota AB. Hence why he’d be in Tokyo. That part where he could have disappeared might be because he/they moved back to the states or another base. Also why Japanese investigators wouldn’t have access to any of his DNA records. Him having mixed heritage could be that his parents met while serving. The US military is a very diverse crowd where it’s not unlikely that a Japanese/Korean decent man and a Southern European decent woman had met. What could also make sense is that the mother met a Japanese/Korean man while serving and ended up with having a child said man. The items that he had could be hand me downs or items that his parents owned.
@Caleb OKAY Yeah this makes a lot of sense, but I'm curious on what y'all think about the fact that he stayed in the house for so long after the crime, would that make it less of a spur of the moment sort of thing or was he slowly sobering up?
@@liyre4189more than likely he was trying to gain something from the crime he just committed, likely a combo of both spur of the moment and planned event.
I kinda see some similarities in the way he acted after murderning the family, specifically how he ate made himself at home for some time, even browsing the interned, with how the Hinterkaifeck murder behaved toward his victims in 1922
Gotta love when murderers take their 'only 130 pieces sold in the entire world ultra rare t-shirt' when they go commit a homocide AND leave it at the scene of the crime.
I'm having a problem that they were able to identify sand from Edwards AFB, vs. say sand from anywhere else in Southern California or any beach in Japan. Let's go with the military veteran theory....90% of military members in modern militaries, are not some kind of combat troops; they're technicians, mechanics, or office workers. My bet is that someone he knew had a beef with him and it got out of control. None of this makes sense...other than that it was a personal attack...
Yeah but those non combat troops are still taught to fight. I don't think him getting injured means much tho. The father could have just got a lucky hit - or the dude wasn't military. I think he was the son in a military family, and that he walked in through the unlocked door
A stranger killing actually makes perfect sense - they are the hardest to solve, and it would explain why this killer remains at large 20 years on. He has no connection whatsoever with the victims beyond the crime itself.
The Japanese news always talk about sand from south western America and I have no idea where the Edwards AFB came into play. But still the sand could be just from a tourist travelling to California.
@@33degreesnorth28 There is a mention of the sand at 15:33. I could also add George AFB, Vandenberg AFB, Camp LeJeune, etc. Cadaber's view that this person was skilled in hand to hand combat makes no sense, they could just be very strong, very violent, and used to fighting.
@@Ammo08 You're actually really well informed about the whole thing so kudos to you. For me the most likely was a military person but if the sand isn't proof for anything and like you said hand to hand combat also doesn't mean a military person then I'm back at the beginning with thinking about the suspects identity.
He kills a family , eats multiple cups of ice cream and uses the computer while searching a movie theaters website. That is truly insanity !!! To think his thought process is concerned with a movie theater is beyond comprehension. How unreal ... This guy has to have murdered before to be that comfortable around a murder scene
With all that DNA evidence, the American in me automatically goes toward a cop, child/family member of a cop, or family member of an important politician. But I don't know what Japan is like. ETA: I do know their clearance rate for murders is unreal (95% or so), so it really makes me think that this one hasn't been solved because it's not supposed to be.
The clearance rate is so high because of a ton of forced confessions as they don't want to be responsible for not finding the killer, but yeah, it just makes it more as if they cannot make THIS arrest for certain reasons...like...the criminal being connected with someone who has power...
@540マンモス Yes, but in modern times, that's becoming irrelevant due to so many genealogy projects. One would think that if they put the suspect's DNA onto these sites, they'd find relatives without a problem. But again, maybe that stuff isn't big in Japan. I honestly don't know.
@@roboticzamat Exactly my thought. If they do shady shit to close cases, then you'd think they'd be even more gung ho to find some rando to pin this on, especially because it's so famous and people are so upset by it. But, on the other hand, if they're trying to protect a killer, that's also incentive to find a rando. So who knows?
Former soldier here. Our DNA is all in military databases, there is nooooooo way a military member could leave any kinda DNA evidence anywhere on a crime scene and not get caught. Especially that much.
What country are you a solider in? Do they take your DNA for their own database? Do they share that database with other countries? If you’re American, can Japan’s local law enforcement just go in and test against the entire US military?? I’m going to say likely not. So unless the perpetrator was JAPANESE military, this point is moot. I suspect he wasn’t a Japanese citizen
I'm of the opinion that the killer did manage to enter the house through the second floor window. There's a chain link fence right underneath the window which wouldn't be hard to scale. Otherwise if he did went in from the front door, he would've encountered Miko first and Miko wouldn't have tumbled to the bottom of the stairs. It also explained why Rei was strangled, because he was the first taken out. If Miko was attacked first, Rei would've been awoken and would've put up a more terrible fight. But it's likely that he left through the front door because it would be easier at that point.
Did the father work in a field where contact with westerners was common? Even before i got to the point in the video (in the second half) about the possible killer being half white, i thought the two kids had very western names. Nina and Ray. Work related conflict that led to revenge? Ed) 4:50 Just checked wikipedia and it says the wife’s mother came to the house after her calls went unanswered. Not the husband’s mother.
16:22 Plenty of people in the military are not experienced in combat. Basic training really is very basic. They don't spend much time on fighting with a knife. Plus the real thing is a lot more stressful, and this could have been an impulsive crime, so the killer was probably not thinking clearly. Even well trained people make dumb mistakes when they're panicking. The only reason I doubt it was a member of the military is they should have him fingerprints and other information that would have matched evidence at the crime scene.
That’s the only thing I don’t like about this channel. I pay for TH-cam premium so I don’t have to bother with ads and it’s annoying how the ads are built into the videos 😐 it’s a first world problem but it’s still annoying.
How did he pay for the knife? 18:24 I vote you the goat for storytelling and presentation skills. Awesome job. I appreciate 21:2921:3021:31 what you do. Thanks for all your work.
In all fairness anyone who grew up with siblings or in a creaky house is likely to know the back against the wall strategy. I learnt to do it so I could scare my little brother without being spotted or making noise lol
Kinda curious how DNA could be used to determine the length of the suspect's hair... That being said, this was another phenomenal presentation, Cadaber. You're getting better with every new episode. Keep up the great work, bud!
I'd say they literally found some strands of hair in the clothing and items, and the length of them is what was used to get that information, and also used the root of those to gather more DNA As far as i know, DNA in itself cant measure changable easthetics like hair (unlike it sometimes can with genetic things like height, natural hair colour, etc)
There's a big problem with the soldier theory; the US military keeps fingerprints and DNA samples of service personnel, which they've been doing since 1990. And even after you're discharged, they keep that on file for another 50 years. I don't know if South Korea and Japan's military branches are the same but being quite modern and modeled on the US's, I'd be pretty surprised if they didn't also have DNA databases for their own troops. Which indicates to me that the killer is not a member of the military, but probably one those guys who has a hard-on for the military and likes to play soldier but couldn't join. Someone with military training would know how inefficient strangulation is (unlike in the movies, it takes a surprisingly long time.) Also, when using a knife, trained soldiers tend to go for the throat, the heart or the femoral artery. The knife this guy grabbed was weak and unsuited to the task.
this kind of case had me thinking of a couple things that i haven't seen discussed. -What was Mikio's job? I haven't seen this angle talked about before, but i wonder if it had to do with workplace relations/issues like an affair or if mikio's job did anything in particular to clients like a debt collector or something -If it had something to do w weird internet group in the early 2000s, esp k*ll*ng/su*c*d* cults/pacts; it was at least an influential thing in anime/j-horror at the time too. -if they have footage of him purchasing the knife, why can't they identify? Surely they can at least track the commute to an extent for even more clues at the least right? Its mind blowing at how much evidence they have and yet they can't close it, makes me wonder if its deeper; like if the suspect is related to military/korean military, japan and korea don't have the best relationship iirc.
HOW DOES THIS SOUND . . . (I would like some ideas on this. By no neans do I think I've solved it but feel free to agree, build on my theory or play "devil's advocate") Now that I've watched the whole thing I must say that this is a very intriguing case. I really don't know where to begin or what to think. The amount of people fingerprinted and DNA tested, the amount of investigators involved and the amount of evidence left at the scene is ALL just overwhelming! The only thing I can say is that the sand from Edwards AFB is very interesting and it shows a POSSIBLE link to the US so with that being a possibility it may be a good idea to ask the US if they can use our CODIS to run the DNA profile through our system AND ALSO it would be a great idea to run the DNA profile through all these DIY/AT HOME DNA test companies data bases cuz they store the DNA profiles of everyone that sends in DNA kits. Theres a possibility that the suspect or a family member used an AT HOME DNA KIT and they may find a FAMILIAL match. Thats all i can think of.
To me it sort of seems like the killer left behind all that evidence as a possible set-up. That is a lot of DNA to leave behind. Almost like he wanted someone else to take the blame, so he took someone else’s clothes and belongings and left them at the crime scene.
Metasequoia help! Months ago I saw a reference to a metasequoia leaf left behind at the Miyazawa home. I can't seem to find it again, anyone happen to know the TH-cam website where I might have seen it? Thanks!
Re: the Military theory. I would be less inclined to believe that he is an American soldier, and more inclined to believe that he might have been an American Soldier's son. A fair number of American Soldiers who serve in South Korea take Korean wives, and if he had then transferred to Japan he probably would have taken his family with him.
I wish you had added details about how the son had special needs-and about what benefits the family may have received for it? And what was the father’s and/or mother’s profession(s)? They lived in a house that was enormous by Japanese standards and yet you don’t address their home and income. And no speculation as to why the son was attacked first..? Would it not follow that the son was the primary target? And then why..? A hatred of the boy, his disability, maybe resentment of the benefits a family would receive for his care? And as the method of killing him was very personal it’s someone who knew him and perhaps had worked with him or someone who lost out on something that the child and his family instead received. I can’t imagine this theory hasn’t been explored.
Okay, so, I am still finishing this video so this is probably covered but these two parts stand out as interesting to me: "The killer's unusual DNA indicates a father of East Asian background and a mother with roots in southern Europe or the Adriatic." "Sand particles were also discovered within the hip bag that the culprit had abandoned at the site, which was later proven to have originated in the Nevada desert, more specifically the Edwards Air Force Base area in California." Is it not out of the question that one (or both) of the killer's parents could have been military? That the killer himself wasn't former military, but one of his parents and that's how the sand got there, and why the killer did not appear to be proficient in his killing tactics? This, of course, does not really indicate motive (to me, if it does for someone else, I'm sure they'll speak up), but so far, I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned, or maybe I missed it or maybe I missed a detail that could rule this idea out. With how many investigators have been involved in this lengthy mystery, I'm sure many of them likely contemplated the notion and had solid reason to rule it out. I'm just curious.
@@33degreesnorth28 Yeah, that's my thinking too. It seems reasonable to assume that they'd have just enough access to that style of sand. Not to mention the Asian v. European roots would make sense, often people in the military marry people they fall in love with in other regions of the world, or both could even be in the same military group, and simply got married and had their kid. I'm sure that the many investigators who've gone over this over the years have considered this. I'm just surprised it wasn't mentioned in the video, or any other details of that specific murder in other sites I've read about. It just seems strange to me.
@@JDoesThingsAndStuff Right Asian and European routes and maybe the parents met while being stationed in Japan and settled down. That fits really good to the Dna evidence. You should make a video about the case^^ there's not many videos that really go through those details.
The amount of evidence is pretty wild, when you think of the crimes that have been solved with far less evidence. Makes me feel better that at least the case is still active
with that much evidence my guess would be some sort of police corruption involved
Just goes to show how bad the Japanese police is.
You guys need to keep in mind that this happened in the year 2000 and the police here in east asia and sea during that time is really bad. Even until now, most police in the sea area are still far behind in technology and training.
@@35PHaaton 1. Nice name and pfp
2. I heard that police back in the day in asia was pretty corrupt, any truth to that or just a nonsense myth?
It blew the wind out of my vagina, honestly. So much was there and they couldn’t even come close to solving it!
The house was a duplex, the grandma lived next door, not 3 minutes away. All she heard next door during the murder was a thud against the shared wall and she never forgave herself for not checking on it.
If she had she would probably be dead too 😔
Yea... Lazy Masquerade did this way better. Even from an unbiased stand-point.
It might probably got lost in translation. Happens every single time in news
@@ThatDudeDeven Wow, wtf...
Nah i think it better she dint check it herself
The killer walking in through the front door isn't as far fetched when you consider that leaving your doors unlocked is not uncommon in Japan. He could've literally just opened the door and let himself in. The reason why he took his shoes off could simply be because walking around barefoot makes less noise.
No. He was stabbing people I'm sure he didn't care about noise.
@@one.2622 He wasn't stabbing people when he walked in. Most likely he wanted to be silent not to alert the family some random guy just walked in. You don't want the people in the house to greet you with a bat to the face.
Very true. I was burgled at around 10pm and he just sneaked in through the unlocked back door. Luckily I heard him over the baby monitors.
@@SarahLBanks what did you end up doing? if you don't mind me asking
He was also trying to be polite
Watching at 4am and as soon as he said "could the killer have walked through the front door" my dad walked out the door downstairs. Scared thes shit out of me lol
I would be scared if my dad walked into my house at 4am
Considering the hip pack's age, it could have been purchased from a thrift-store, and the former owner could have been a veteran.
This is what I figured too. I'm reasonably certain the killer is non-military but a military fanboy. Probably has lots of other thrift store military gear and airsoft guns, that kinda thing. Probably couldn't qualify to own a gun under Japanese law because, among other things, it requires a mental health exam. And if he was capable of obtaining a gun illegally he would have used it, so that rules out any organized crime connection.
@@dars5229 In the UK we use the term "Walt" or "Walter Mitty" to describe military fantasists. He could be one of those.
Not and still retain sand from Edwards air force base. The owner of that pack had to have been someone with military clearance.
@@Jbsutt we don’t know how much sand there was. Could have been a few grains caught in the seams. Considering you don’t usually wash a fanny pack, someone could have bought it from a thrift store and then used it in this crime, while it still having trace evidence inside it. Totally plausible to me. Maybe that’s part of the reason he left it, planting evidence that he knew would not lead back to him.
I also believe there's a connection to the military but the Japanese news reports all say the sand is from south western USA and nothing more specific but the Edwards space is in that area they suspect the sand to be from. So it could be completely unrelated to the military.
everything about this case is heartbreaking but that photo of setsuko sitting in front of the daruma dolls really got to me for some reason. something about this cute little granny having to grieve alone over so many family members without closure really fucks me up. on the slightly brighter side, i did a little digging on the photo and found out those dolls were a gift to setsuko from a former detective on the case named mitsuko matsumori. she's retired now but she still has a relationship with setsuko to this day and provides personal support for her.
I don’t think it’s particularly strange that he took his shoes off. Asians are taught to do it our entire life and he probably just reflexively kicked his shoes off as soon as he entered the home.
Yeah thats what i was thinking too if you are doing this for pretty much your entire life this sort of think would be second nature
Also it really helps with sound.
The strangest thing about the shoes is surely that he left them behind! Why would he do that? Were they covered in too much blood? I find it hard to believe he was the same shoe size as the man he killed.
Also - do police know exactly which clothes he stole from the male victim, so they could provide a description of the way he was dressed when he left the house?
Good presentation of the case.
Some thoughts:
• Couldn’t DNA facial reconstruction be used as well as relative DNA in GEDmatch or other existing databases?
• Isn’t it likely that the killer left the country shortly after the murders? Possibly to Korea or the US.
• What clothes did he change into? Did he bring them with him or did he simply steal the farther’s clothes?
• How did the killer get to the house and how did he leave? Is it likely that he had a vehicle of some sort?
• Are really all US army personnel trained in hand-to-hand combat? Aren’t there civilian jobs at an army base too? Or family members?
• Could he have been high on something? Apart from the horrific crimes, especially towards the children, the part with the file in the bathtub and things stuffed in the toilet stands out as a quite strange behavior. Did the blood analysis turn something up?
• Could it have had something to do the father’s activity online? Perhaps even quite a long time before the murders? Perhaps it took a long time for the killer to find the father, presuming he was the intended target.
Well, with that much manpower I guess the police already asked those questions.
The cases from Japan, and Asia in general, are quite tricky for an European like me. There are often cultural undertones that I’m simply not aware of, making it very hard to fully comprehend the complete picture.
Yes, US personale are trained in basic hand to hand. Every last military personal goes through "basic" training. Partially because anyone in the military can find themselves in a live or die situations. A cook at a camp in the middle east can find themselves having to fight to survive. There's actually been a few battles where the support military people were thrown into the fighting and managed to stop a complete route, the germans did it in world war 2 in one of the battles for example. So every soldier is put through basic training to give them basic skills needed to survive in the military and at war.
Also, pretty sure every service member has their DNA in a system. So when the Japanese ran it, I'd assume they'd be able to get access to it, via a warrant or something. But ultimately I don't believe the person is military. Firstly the only "link" is sand taken from a military base. That just means he could've visited it, maybe is related to a service member, or any number of things. Heck he could've just bought sand from there, or the item had the sand when he bought it for all we know. So I think this is just a dead end theory. There's nothing to suggest military. The attack was sloppy, and he struggled to kill people in their sleep. That doesn't scream soldier to me. That screams someone who has never seen combat.
@@NeiasaurusCreations I agree. It doesn’t seem like a soldier. The alleged place of origin of the sand can also simply be a mistake. Mistakes do happen all the time.
@@Legionmint7091 Yup. Or could be there from an prior owner. It's why I discount the idea entirely. With both DNA and fingerprints, a soldier would instantly be flagged as both DNA and finger prints are on file of soldiers. Same with criminals. I think the person knew them, and then left the country for Korea. It'd explain why he "dropped off the face of the world", as well as why no DNA would be available. It'd also explain why no more cases like this linked to this one has been found. Because if it's across two countries that have a historical beef stemming from genocide and oppression during ww2, it's unlikely the two would work together.
I don't think this is the first or last kill by the person. Killing an entire family is a big thing. Killers usually start small, and work there way up.. And once a killer kills entire families, they usually don't stop.
@@NeiasaurusCreations I agree, again, with most of what you wrote. However, since the motive can’t be established we have no clue as to why the entire family was murdered. Family annihilations are typically committed by a family member, or possibly by organized crime to set an example for others, none of which seems to fit in this case. The cases when entire families are murdered are in themselves extremely rare, and it’s even more rare that the perpetrator is someone outside of the immediate family.
What talks against your theory that the purp has murdered before is his exceptional sloppiness, leaving so many forensic evidence behind. That, in my book, indicates a young and/or poorly educated amateur rather than an organized serial killer or a contract killer.
The fact that he stayed and ate several cans of ice cream and drank ice tea could simply mean he had the munchies, which possibly could point to a drug induced psychosis. That, in turn, could explain both the ferocious murders, his sloppiness as well as his very odd behavior afterwords. If this theory holds water, he may not even clearly remember what he did. There’s a possibility that he’s not a violent nature under normal conditions, thus is someone who wouldn’t stick out as a possible suspect to anyone. He may never kill again as far as we know. There are plenty of cases with people who have been caught many years after committing horrendous murders, but they never broke the law again in their entire life.
And this being Japan, which has a very high suicide rate, he may even be dead, and no one made the connection.
@@Legionmint7091 I think drugs had to have been involved. It'd explain why it was so sloppy. Also killing before doesn't make a person a super killer or anything. Especially if they're a blood lust frenzy type. But there was some level of thought put into it as well. He bought the knife ahead of time, that day in the morning. So he knew likely from the start of the day, he was going to kill them. So perhaps he took some drugs either out of enjoyment, or to help with the nerves.
The other main thing is, mental health. I can very easily see the person not being on drugs, but some type of mentally ill person. The nature of the attack, and the post attack actions come off as just off the walls.
I honestly don't have any answers, but when I look at this, I can't help but feel this person didn't just do this one thing, and drop off the face of the map.
I don't think this was personal. This case reminds me a lot of the Viscalla and Hinterkaifeck axe murders. I think this is a case of someone with a serious mental health issue combined with a strong predisposition towards violence. The attack was probably random which speaks to why it has yet to be solved despite a strong interest in a resolution. Hopefully, with the DNA, they will be able to use genetic genealogy to identify the perpetrator.
This
@@oldacc1911if we assume the killer was indeed just a crazy person, it could be literally just curiosity, boredom... anything, the simplest answer is generally the truth
Yep. If you want to get away with murder (which you shouldn’t, if you’re a normal person with empathy) then you kill someone that you have no connection to. It makes it extremely difficult to track the person down- even DNA needs something to be compared to, and if that person was never previously arrested 🤷🏻♀️ it can be tough.
@@renandmrtns I completely agree. Boredom and curiosity combined with a lust for violence and the family's home so happen to be in a rather remote area of the district and city. I think the killer left the grandmother alive either so that there is someone to report the crime so as to taunt the police or that he was not aware that there was one more family member left. The latter further suggests that this was neither a work-related crime nor a personal vendetta against the family, but more so a random act of violence.
I'm glad the 15-year statute of limitation in Japan is not applied to this case because that is one of the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard from a country, especially a country like Japan. I really hope the killer is found one day.
@@OpalLeigh Agreed and this is a very very deeply rooted issue in Japan's justice system. They rather rely heavily on suspect's confession to murders rather than actual evidence backing their search for the murderer. There are so many cases where the Japan police caught the wrong guy but forced them to confess just so they can tell the media that they have solved the case.
The fact that he was former military wouldn't have made him an expert in hand to hand combat. He potentially would've had some training depending on his role and country he served with, but soldiers aren't rushing at the enemy with a knife to get an epic quickstab B-hop kill. They're typically engaging an enemy at medium to long range with, y'know, a rifle. If he was unfamiliar with how to operate a firearm then I'd say he probably wouldn't be military, but the fact that he wasn't an expert with knives, especially if he was *former* military, doesn't prove or disprove anything.
Not to mention that he clearly held some kind of grudge against the family, and may have even known them personally, so it's perfectly reasonable to assume this was likely a crime of passion, and I can't imagine you're thinking back to your CQC training while murdering a family in their own home.
I once saw somewhere a theory about that he was probably a son of someone who worked in the military
The point he was trying to make was that there'd be SOME level of competency in fighting if he was military. In everyrole for the US, you have to go through basic training, and learn to fight. Just because someone is sent to a non-combat role doesn't mean they won't ever need hand to hand training. He points out the person struggled to kill people who were sleeping, and defenseless, and likely physically weaker then most military service people. And that the attack seemed to show a LACK of experience with actual hand to hand combat. So I sincerely doubt it's former US military, as good of a story as that'd be, it just doesn't seem very likely. Having sand from a military base doesn't mean a person is indeed military. And since the attack suggests the person lacked combat experience.
Also, wouldn't their DNA be on record if they were military? I'm pretty sure the Japanese could've secured a warrant to run the DNA through US military databases for a match. But they didn't, so it seems to me they never really took the military theory seriously as investigators. Or maybe they did check the DNA through military data and found no matches, which would further weaken that theory.
I'd say this case has very little to actually go off, despite having so much evidence. A generic common description of his racial standing and hair color doesn't really help here. No witnesses, no idea at all of who it is, what he actually looks like beyond some minor things. No idea where he came from or where he went. No idea how the attack even took place with multiple theories kinda make sense, but none truly perfectly fit. And if you come away from something with more questions then answers, then I'm not convinced we should be making assumptions based on such weak evidence as sand from a specific place.
Not saying he was military but this ''can't imagine you're thinking back to your CQC training while murdering a family in their own home'' i think is wrong. the whole point of training is for it to become second nature. You are supposed to remember is life threatening situations. So i do think he would remember training while doing it. once you learned a more effective way of doing something you are not doing it the worst way again
@@NeiasaurusCreations former military hurrr...as I can only speak for myself & what I experienced, navy does not teach u any cqc or fighting of any sort as 'basic training' or at all , unless your 'rate' (job) requires it...and that's people like: SEALS, SWICK, VBSS, MP, prolly a few others, but, like, 98% of Navy gets Zero combat training....
@@NeiasaurusCreations only people like, 'Jason Bourne', highly trained 'ghost' aka, assassin, don't exist...amiright?
A file was taken...how do they know? What file? ...was that the one the dude put into the toilet?
The document part of the story is the most mysterious part of the story and the fact that Cadaber doesn't cover it much is beyond me
What even was in that document!!? The fact that he literally pissed and shat on them really makes me think this guy really hated the family for some sort of job releated reason
Admittedly, it's not much to go off of, but the document thing made me think that it could be like the Skylar Deleon case, who turned out to be a hired assassin according to their accomplice in the murder of Tom and Jackie Hawks.
The killer may simply have done that with the document as a red herring to confuse police about motive. Pulling out the document made it look personal/targeted, when in my view it's more likely to be a fairly random 'thrill kill' by a stranger.
The couple both worked from home - he was a consultant for a London based company and she was a primary school teacher, so this was unlikely to be a work related crime.
In Japanese forums they say the killer hid from the ground floor windows as he went through the documents. The documents were store on the ground floor and he most likely went through them on the toilet and bathroom to be as close as possible to his exit route which was the window he came in from. So they landed in the bathtub and toilet.
@@glamdolly30 yeah, really feels like that. If the documents had any incriminating evidence against them, the intruder would've kept them when leaving. And that wouldn't even look suspicious. Just someone who has to bring some stuff to the office in the morning.
@@33degreesnorth28did they say anything about his connection to the documents?
Military doesn't necessarily mean hand to hand combat skills. Depending on the branch and your job, you might not even see combat at all and just get a desk job. Both my parents were military and they don't have hand to hand combat experience. At most they were taught how to fire particular guns and just be in good physical shape... which doesn't equate to fighting experience.
I've said this again and again, but soldiers have their DNA in a database. AS soon as they ran that DNA, it'd flag up. That tells me he's likely not military. The attack was also frenzied and sloppy with the person having no experience or skill with combat, further reason to doubt it. The link in is literally just sand from a military base. Nothing else. And to me, with all the other factors, like them having his DNA but not getting a hit says he isn't military.
This is true. Unless they're some kind of SOC or SOF force or (rare) in a shit hot unit that takes martial arts seriously, average schmuckatelli is worthless. We have MCMAP but it's more of a meme than anything. A blue belt in bjj would destroy a tabbed MAI. It just comes down to the hours it takes to belt up in bjj or get proficient in boxing vs the hrs trained to get mcmap belts. Mcmap is expedited because we have more pressing shit to do.
The Mother lived virtually next door to the family, not 3 minutes away! They were two houses joint together. She even heard a crash that woke her up around the time the killer would have been inside the house (possibly the Father being thrown down the stairs) but didn't think much of it and went back to sleep.
It's wild the killer was so careless to cause so much noise, always makes you wonder about those weird noises you hear from your neighbors
I don't believe you
@@jasonschofield1576 Oh, no! No idea how I'll sleep tonight knowing some random on TH-cam doesn't believe something that's factual.
@@OhTylerB maybe you should take some melatonin
Sounds like a lone psychopath. Not motivated by money or robbery. Family didn't seem to have enemies.The brutal nature of the killing and the odd crime scene.
This channel is part of a small handful of creators that I am 100% engaged throughout each and every video. Normally, I like to watch/listen to true crime or mystery content while I am working on the computer. I usually alt + tab back and forth between the videos and whatever project I happen to be working on at that time. Upon seeing a new video from Cadaber, I know that I just need to put everything else aside and just focus on the content!
How about the documents? I have seen this case before but never saw that part going into details. He apparently opened a drawer and looked for some documents, then he found one and destroyed it. Was that random or did that document had a purpose? Could it even be the whole reason? What did the father worked on?
Well he probably was taking the documents from the ground floor and was reading through them as close to the escape route as possible: the bathroom with the window.
And he went through them to maybe find money or something or just for his pleasure.
He brought with him a sashimi knife, which was inappropriate for this type of use, and this is why he cut his hand. He broke the knife and had to use the ones in the house. Not the mark of a pro.
In turn, ruling out that he was military
@@Marcus-gw4bbwhy? Not every military member fights hand to hand like a pro
@@4thtime910 That's fair. But either way your guess is as good as mine.
what’s even more crazy than the fact that this person just straight up vanished is that he went about the crime scene like he knew that was what would happen. I mean, yeah he could have been a dumb bad murdererer leaving behind hella evidence, but idk.
the careless level of it all just gets at me.
Whenever I watch a Cadaber video, I always skip to 1:43
Dude.. Your content is getting better and better every video you make. Fan freakin tastic my dude.
The quality of the video and audio is good. One suggestion though: I'd run the audio through a de-esser. You have a nice voice, but the shrillness of the sound that comes anytime you say something with an s in it can be a bit distracting. Love the content.
One thing definitely stands out to me is the savage way they were attacked which screams crime of passion. A knife as well as strangling someone are considered more "intimate" forms of killing bc its very up close and personal, as well as inflicting a lot more pain on the victims than just a quick shot to the head. I wonder if a possible affair by either the wife or husband was ever considered...might also explain the sand if it was a soldier who was stationed there and wound up having an affair with one of them. It's a sad story for sure and I hope the family will get justice one day.
To shoot somebody you need a gun. That is not easy to obtain in Japan. And would make much more easy to pin point the killer.
That's an interesting take on this crime. Who knows, you may be on to something.
The issue is there's no reason to believe he's military. They have DNA, service members, especially US service members have their DNA on file. The moment they have his DNA and ran it through the database, it'd have a match on file if it was military.
Service members also KNOW their DNA is on file. So would likely not leave so much DNA behind, which can be used to easily identify them. The lack of care about DNA to me says the guy knew he had no DNA on any database. Thus he wouldn't need to worry about leaving DNA behind. It also suggest the killer wasn't the most organized or careful. But I have this worrying thought the guy has killed after. Ahnilating an entire family isn't something you just wake up one morning and do. And most killers that kill 4 people, tend to continue to kill. Yet our man dropped off the face of the world, and has not been caught in anything. Remembering that if you got caught for another crime, they'd run your DNA, and put that into a database too. So when they go back to retest the DNA like they seem to, if the same DNA was found at another crime, or someone was arrested with it, they'd get a match.
So what happened to him? Did he leave the country? Does he have more victims? How is there so much evidence, yet nothing that even remotely points to a suspect? More questions then answers. And it bugs me. Also the odd nature of what he did after the attacks suggests he might've been on drugs. It might also explain why he decided in a spur of the moment to carry out the attack. Because the entire thing is so sloppy and frenzied I don't think there ever was a plan. I think the person knew the family, was hoped up on drugs, and something triggered him to go crazy. But by that same token, there clearly was SOME level of planning since he bought a knife ahead of time. Which makes the entire thing even more confusing. Did he buy the knife planning to use it? Or did he also do that on an Impulse?
@@NeiasaurusCreations good fucking point about the perp buying the knife en route to the scene...like, yeah...was it really a crime of passion or..... 🤔
@@wilz3346 Yeah, it comes off as a mix of a frenzied impulse kill, but with some premeditation in there too. It makes deciphering the motive a lot harder. Especially if the person was on drugs, it'd explain the odd behavior after the kill, and why it was both premeditated and impulsive at the same time. It was such a sloppy crime scene that I can't think this was a highly organized affair. This was definitely very personal, stabbings being a very intimate way of killing people.
Love the video, I just had something to interject on when you said "if the suspect was prior military he would have known how to handle hand to hand combat". I'm currently in the marine corps and I'd comfortably say we have the best mixed martial arts instruction out of all of the branches, and even then, I firmly believe it would be a far cry to say that most of us are proficient in hand to hand combat, the classes we take are voluntary and aren't really ongoing, when you plan to get your next belt you pretty much allocate 2 hours a day for about 2 weeks to do the course and its taught in a similar way you'd learn in a high school class, they tell you a move name, they do it, then you do it, and then rinse and repeat for the next move, and you do this until you test out for your next belt. So what I'm trying to get at is that, even the marines who have black belt, more often than not will just go through the course, learn a bunch of moves in a short period of time and kinda forget most of what you learn and do nothing with it after they get their belt. no one really stays consistantly on top of their knowledge because there is no reason to. So to loop this around to the beginning of my point, you said the person responsible had sand from Edwards AFB in his bag, meaning more than likely he was/is in the airforce, or even just a civilian contractor working for the airforce (makes sense since theres also an AFB in Japan as well), the airforce from my knowledge, has no martial arts training what so ever, so to say that the suspect should be knowledgeable in hand to hand combat doesnt really make sense when you look at it from that aspect. But yeah, that was my 2 cents, I dont know why that point struck me so hard lol.
Felt the same when he said that about the combat training & military..the navy has zero combat training unless your rate requires it...so like a few percent, tops, pilots included...
If you have a knife and the other person doesn't, why would you need training in hand to hand combat?! This theory seems to have arisen because the killer's footprints show he took sideways steps, backed up to a wall to ambush the victims. That's surely just common sense and doesn't necessarily indicate any military training!
Once he had taken out the only threat in that house - the other adult male - killing the sleepy, unarmed woman and her children, all in their pyjamas, was shooting fish in a barrel.
I think he matches this profile, he was trained to kill so he could stab without hesitation but he still failed in disposing of the father without suffering a major cut wound and breaking his weapon. Hardly someone who is good with a knife, but definitely someone who has gotten basic training with one and in taking lives like a soldier.
Awesome. Just listened to the last episode while putting my new pc together earlier today. Now I'm putting my desk together and this popped up.
He ate several cups of Ice cream?
The father heard thuds coming from upstairs and as he wanted to turn a corner to go upstairs, he was ambushed?
This must've been multiple people. Can't convince me otherwise
Wouldn't there have been different DNA? All the DNA they found was consistent with the same person.
@@liyre4189 True. Could've been twins but that would be far-fetched.
Something just seems off though
@@riyo.38 or... other other person was a robot, i mean it is Japan
@@riyo.38 I mean... It definitely could be two. Just one guy got stabbed/bled during the whole thing.
It would explain why some were stabbed and the child was strangulated. Two different people. Sorry, I know, old video.
To commit this atrocity and never come to police attention before or since is extraordinary.
Not if they came to police attention in a completely different country. We would never know
Reminds me of BTK. Dude was just wandering around with no criminal record being a dad and husband like it was nothing.
I've been waiting for an upload for so long and I'm so happy that it's finally come, thank you cadaber🥳🔥
I wish you'd gone more into the background stuff to explain potential motives. What was the father's profession, had he made enemies, involved in a business deal gone wrong, that kind of things.
Me too.
If either or both of the adults were out that day, perhaps they caught the attention of a drugged and/or paranoid individual who misiidentified them, felt threatened, bought a knife,, and followed them home.
We just don't have any info on who the victims were (besides a family), where they were that day, when and where they had traveled previously, etc.
@@OffRampTourist The killer can't be a druggie - forensics would have picked that up from his blood, hair and stool samples. No drugs or alcohol in his system, and they could even tell he was a non-smoker!
The motive was unlikely to be work related. The couple both worked from home, the husband for a London-based marketing company, and the wife was a primary school teacher.
Hey! Just a thought:
What if he’s former military…but just non-combat?
My relative is actually half Japanese, and has been in the Air Force for decades. He was actually stationed in Japan for awhile; he’s been at Edwards AFB for as long as I’ve been alive, though. But he doesn’t do any combat - he actually works on the engineering side, of the airplanes.
So, if the murderer had a non-combat military background, that could leave him with a very unusual blend of military head-knowledge, yet no combat experience to. So, he could do calculated things that point to him having knowledge, but actually carry it out in an amateurish way.
……LOL ok, when you got to the part about how the suspect is half European and half Japanese (or Korean), I….may have rewound to the date it happened and done that math to make sure it was NOT, in fact, my uh mild-mannered uncle on a military trip to Japan around then.. 😂😅
@@DannyD-lr5yg There's nothing at all to suggest he is. The attack clearly wasn't very uber competent in it's execution. None of the clothes he was wearing is military, especially US military stuff. The only tie in is sand in his bag. Which could've been there from any number of methods, and heck it might've been there from BEFORE the killer even owned the bag. So literally nothing about this screams military or exmilitary. To me the attack seems much more likely to be someone the man new, and was local to the area. I believe he absolutely knew the victims. I also am extremely worried that he's likely to kill again. You don't just ahnilate an entire family and disappear. So either he's dead, left the country, or there has been more murders that just haven't been connected yet.
Also another thing that puts me off the military theory is the DNA. Service members have their DNA on file. And if a country has reason to suspect US military involvement, they can actually get the DNA ran through this as long as they can show some level of reasonable credibility to the idea. So the fact the DNA was ran dealt with so extensively and nothing links it to a service member further deflates this idea to me. The only thing I can think of is they never approached the US about running the DNA, because they didn't have a very strong or credible reason to do such. Which if it's so weak they don't even take the theory seriously, I'm not sure we should, either.
All in all, I'm left with more questions then answers, but the one thing I'm almost certain of, is the person was absolutely not military of any form. US or Japanese.
@@r.r.r.r.r.r.r. not at all in the navy. I had to have what is called a 'special request-chit' just to have a pocket-knife...that 'chit' simply being a small note from some chief saying I could carry a small ass blade, in case I get stopped by some power-tripping-sweet-heart...
I can only speak Fer da navy, however.
@@NeiasaurusCreations A theory I have seen is actually related to the overlap between the skater and surfer scene, and the proximity to certain common surfer areas to the military base in California.
So if we wanted to go onto the 'psycho skater' theory, it still works if he was also a surfer and maybe it was a big coincidence.
@@r.r.r.r.r.r.r. Your example isn't as strong as you think it is. Non-combat personnel in the military, which do exist, the military is more than just soldiers, don't *always* get combat training because they aren't meant to be in combat. Soldiers' sparse use of knives despite being trained to use them is different to people in the military who literally aren't there to fight.
It largely depends on which country you're talking about, too.
Man Cadaber is tight! Reminds me of Lemmino, y'all videos are off the chain!
With all this evidence, it points to the killer being someone that is not only well-known but powerful, either personally or vicariously through a relative/employer. Whoever he is it's someone the Japanese justice system is not willing to pursue.
250000 cops, though, and all the other ludicrously high stats. If they wanted to throw the investigation, they could have gotten away with a _much_ less expensive façade and still appear credible.
Uh, no. The perpetrator was likely not even a Japanese citizen….
Not every country is like the usa. Some cases are hard to invastigate
The parts that most stuck out to me were, they seemed to be let in. They had a calculated plan. They were sloppy with the killings, which by nature seemed like a crime of passion, and yet it was planned with the method seeming to just be frenzied and quick, as if they were just trying to take the family out and were desperate to do so. The files destroyed brings a lot of that together for me. Something seems to be covered up by the killer. As if something in those files pertained to them or an event. Those files speak to me more than anything else, with the quick desperation of trying to kill the entire family quickly, no matter what it took, being close second.
The documents may have just been a deliberate red herring by the killer, to make police think it was a personal, targeted crime when it was actually a fairly impulsive, stranger 'thrill kill'.
If I were in that position and had to destroy the documents, I wouldn't to it there. I would get them and leave and destroy them later. He went out in the early morning, possibly disappearing into rush hour like another salaryman who has to go to work.
I think what’s making this case so difficult to solve is that the perp isn’t born and raised there. I feel he either had moved there recently and or moved away soon after. Maybe a serial killer from another country even. Or someone temporarily working or studying there. I feel they should be checking all Interpol and few other countries databases as well, first and foremost South Korea and America. If I had to guess the bag that contained sand from the US military base was most likely someone else, probably a parents. So could be that he’s from or has some ties to America. Either way it’s a crazy case. Thankfully japan abolished its 20yr statue of limitations so this person can still be held accountable!!
I agree - I sense that's why he was so confident of getting away with it, he wasn't a Japan resident, and was probably returning to his home country imminently.
An American soldier temp. stationed in Korea and making secret diplomatic parcel runs in Japan, and possibly even assassination.
Sad sad story. I hope the family can find closure.
Is it just me or foe the crime feel weirdly personal in a way? The intruder comes in, kills a whole family, rummages through their food and proceeds to eat their ice cream, play on the computer, not only use their bathroom, but then to also use his own bodily fluids to ruin a specific document in the family home.
I don’t know it’s just weird why would some regular intruder kill a whole family, then stay several hours to not even try and hide any evidence, but just play around the house.
Seems like the perfect case to enter into a genetic database, does anyone know if they have/are planning to?
Agreed, 20 years on it's surprising forensic experts haven't explored the latest genealogy methods of identification using all the DNA samples he left behind.
There seems to be strong links to Korea in the killer's clothing and DNA - I wonder if he wasn't planning to leave the country (maybe returning to his home in Korea or the US), and committed the crime just before he left, confident he wouldn't be caught.
I keep reading allegations the Japanese police were incompetent in their investigation and that's the reason he hasn't been caught after 22 years. I hope that isn't true. If the killer fled to another country, it would make the crime far harder to solve and require some excellent police work.
Arent DNA databases either based on priors which could be unlikely for this suspect, or 23andMe? I dont think 23andMe is that big in Japan, so dunno if it would be as effective. Like you could find distant relatives in America, if he is American that is.
I think way too much weight is being put on the origin of the sand. I cannot find the exact details of analyses carried out anywhere, but I have a Master's in geology and I find it very hard to see how it would be possible to pinpoint the location of the sand to a particular military base. These results will likely be based on trace-element geochemical analysis of the sand and in certain cases (depending on the specifics of the local geology) this can indeed provide good constraints on the origin of the sand, but there is still a limit to these constraints. The geochemistry of sand is specific to the rocks the sand came from rather than the in-situ location of the sand so the geochemistry of sand inside a military base isn't going to be different to the geochemistry of sand outside of a military base. Sand can also (obviously) be mobilised and transported by winds. The point is that claiming the sand comes from a specific military base (as opposed to the region the military base is situated in) is an extraordinary claim and I would be skeptical by default in the absence of the details of said claim.
If you do some googling, you find contradictary claims about this sand. Some websites report that it comes from that base (without any references), but other websites instead report that it simply came from the Mojave Desert (although, again, without any references). But this latter claim is much more believable (because it certainly is possible to fingerprint sand to a particular desert) so whilst it can be said with a very high degree of certainty that the perpetrator had been to the US, and likely that region of the US, I would be highly skeptical of the claim that the perpetrator had to have been on a US military base.
thanks for writing this up, i fully agree.
Could be pollen. I was watching some crime show where they mentioned ID-ing sand from a location based off the plant pollens in it from the local area
Most soldiers are not good in hand-to-hand combat, as claimed in the video. I mean a lot of them were training infective martial arts until recently maybe some of it work on inexperienced people, but I would not call most soldiers good in hand-to-hand combat that's just not true, it's not like they got a couple of years of MMA training the whole point is to kill with weapons. Also, I guess there weren't many foreigners in that time, so it would explain things, I would also say the chance of violence are bigger with military personnel than the average Japanese citizen, a lot of young people who chose a carer in the US military service, you have to expect killing based on their history since WW2, not to mention there is a lot Eastern European and Korean living in the USA.
@@Emiliapocalypse yes, good point, but that's also regional rather than specific ti inside a fence.
I agree fully with you! All the Japanese news talk about is sand from south western America and I have no idea where the base came into play
You are a really good writer my friend! Your prose and narration are therapeutic to listen to. I love your vids! ✊🏽🎧☮️
You're my favorite version of Lemmino man! Glad to have another video.
Aren't you beautiful
S tier quality videos from Cadaber every time
If they found sand from a military base in the US, maybe they should check on any Japanese and Korean soldiers who received some training in the US in the recent years. They don't need to stick with only soldiers but also contractors, etc.
They probably already did. Taking fingerprints in the military is normal.
@@Xeidasx Finger prints AND DNA. Service members have their shit on record. So the guy isn't a criminal, a service member, or anyone that'd have been fingered printed or had a DNA database tie in. Which suggest a citizen who probably knew the victim.
@Caleb OKAY I doubt it. There's literally no reason to suggest that at all. Sand being in a place doesn't mean anything. It could've gotten there in a few dozen ways, including buying the bag and it already being there. There's absolutely NO evidence that suggests the person is military, ex military, family of military. That's just fantasy wishful thinking, and a desire for a more spicy story. I refuse to indulge things that have no merit to it.
The Japanese news never talked about any air force base... They always say south western America and that's it... So sadly it's a good thought from you but the sand doesn't indicate anything
i’m really confused about the idea that he entered through the front door. the shoe impressions found outside the window were a match with the shoes left inside the house. so if the window wasn’t his entrance but instead was his point of exit, how did the shoes that he left behind match the impressions made when he supposedly fled???? that’s the part that’s tripping me up lol. and the order of the attacks/where they were in terms of the levels of the house.
did he have two identical pairs of shoes?? if you’re committing a crime, why would you wear identical shoes when fleeing that would match the profile of a murder suspect?? especially if he’s going through the trouble of changing his clothes entirely.
Maybe he grab the shoes got too the exit point put them on too make the prints,then put back the shoes back in the front door and went out the front door too confuse people that all I got too be honest
Maybe he was just scoping out the house? Looking through windows to check if people were sleeping
As someone that once lived near Edwards AFB, I can tell ya, it's just as likely if not more so that the suspect was working in agriculture or uh... substances. If he was military, it would have been Air Force, likely in engineering or similar high level stuff. Or, perhaps even more likely (as someone else pointed out), the dirt in his bag could have been there from whoever owned it before him. Maybe he picked up all the clothes at some boutiquey thrift shop (hence the weirdly "rare" items) and they didn't bother to shake out the bag before they sold it. Maybe he just went camping. Who knows? At any rate, it's not nearly enough to point in any one direction.
That's interesting and a great insight^^ in the Japanese news they say it's sand from south western America and not specific Edwards AFB. Is it possible that the base has different sand than the surrounding areas?
Apparently the park behind the home was going to be developed and that's why the Setagaya's neighbors were moving so quickly. My brain instantly went to "yakuza jirage operation ordered hit on the family" once I read that. Jirage operations involed yakuza threatening or bribing residents and small businesses owners to vacate in order to sell the land or invest in future developments on it.
If the Setagaya's weren't moving out fast enough, or the father was adamant about not moving, this would account for so much because they were inadvertently haulting the development of the park which pissed someone off. Someone who had alot riding on this development. The yakuza's involvement alone would account for why the case is still stalling despite the massive amounts of evidence. They bribe corrupt law enforcement officials frequently.
If anyone's ever played Yakuza 0, that story is based upon the actual jiage operations.
This guy doesn’t seem like a professional killer tho. Not someone an organisation would trust to carry out a murder of an entire family. But I do agree it’d explain why this guy was so careless since he knew he’d be protected
@@elspethschuyler685 The reason I know about the operations is because I did a final research paper and presentation for an upper level elective on Japanese society in college. For context was major is Japanese and I've lived there before.
What shocked me most about the research was how much corruption goes on with Japanese law enforcement and goverment officials. The reason they were successful with bribing officials was due to "Japan's Lost Decade" which lasted from the 1990s to the early 00s (murders took place during that period). The economy was slowed down to a point where ppl were overworked and under immense pressure to keep jobs because it wasn't easy finding good paying jobs, so some bad apples in law enforcement fell victim to temptaion.
So eventhough the hitman was sloppy af, it didn't matter because at the end of the day, they could (and most likely have continued to) ensure that the case would never be solved.
Didn’t it get turned into a skate park? Yeah, a real money maker for the YAKUZA lmfao…. Weebs 🙄
Didn't the family accept an offer for their home and the money was already in their bank account as one theory was the killers motive was their money 💷
He could have American military parents. The thought that he had clothes that were made in Korea. Being that at one point his parents were stationed there at Osan AB, they could also have been stationed at Edwards AB and gone hiking in the surrounding region. Explaining the sand. As well as being stationed in Yakota AB. Hence why he’d be in Tokyo. That part where he could have disappeared might be because he/they moved back to the states or another base. Also why Japanese investigators wouldn’t have access to any of his DNA records. Him having mixed heritage could be that his parents met while serving. The US military is a very diverse crowd where it’s not unlikely that a Japanese/Korean decent man and a Southern European decent woman had met. What could also make sense is that the mother met a Japanese/Korean man while serving and ended up with having a child said man. The items that he had could be hand me downs or items that his parents owned.
I think this is most likely.
@Caleb OKAY Yeah this makes a lot of sense, but I'm curious on what y'all think about the fact that he stayed in the house for so long after the crime, would that make it less of a spur of the moment sort of thing or was he slowly sobering up?
@@liyre4189more than likely he was trying to gain something from the crime he just committed, likely a combo of both spur of the moment and planned event.
I kinda see some similarities in the way he acted after murderning the family, specifically how he ate made himself at home for some time, even browsing the interned, with how the Hinterkaifeck murder behaved toward his victims in 1922
Dude really killed an entire family and then sat down for a bowl of ice cream.
I’m so glad to have discovered your channel, such quality videos, thank you man
Gotta love when murderers take their 'only 130 pieces sold in the entire world ultra rare t-shirt' when they go commit a homocide AND leave it at the scene of the crime.
Love your work cadaber!
A cadaber upload day is a good day
I'm having a problem that they were able to identify sand from Edwards AFB, vs. say sand from anywhere else in Southern California or any beach in Japan. Let's go with the military veteran theory....90% of military members in modern militaries, are not some kind of combat troops; they're technicians, mechanics, or office workers. My bet is that someone he knew had a beef with him and it got out of control. None of this makes sense...other than that it was a personal attack...
Yeah but those non combat troops are still taught to fight. I don't think him getting injured means much tho. The father could have just got a lucky hit - or the dude wasn't military. I think he was the son in a military family, and that he walked in through the unlocked door
A stranger killing actually makes perfect sense - they are the hardest to solve, and it would explain why this killer remains at large 20 years on. He has no connection whatsoever with the victims beyond the crime itself.
The Japanese news always talk about sand from south western America and I have no idea where the Edwards AFB came into play.
But still the sand could be just from a tourist travelling to California.
@@33degreesnorth28 There is a mention of the sand at 15:33. I could also add George AFB, Vandenberg AFB, Camp LeJeune, etc. Cadaber's view that this person was skilled in hand to hand combat makes no sense, they could just be very strong, very violent, and used to fighting.
@@Ammo08 You're actually really well informed about the whole thing so kudos to you. For me the most likely was a military person but if the sand isn't proof for anything and like you said hand to hand combat also doesn't mean a military person then I'm back at the beginning with thinking about the suspects identity.
He kills a family , eats multiple cups of ice cream and uses the computer while searching a movie theaters website. That is truly insanity !!! To think his thought process is concerned with a movie theater is beyond comprehension. How unreal ... This guy has to have murdered before to be that comfortable around a murder scene
once considered doing a video on this.
but was too lazy plus lot of preexisting content. you did a good job with this.
Every day Cadaber uploads is a fantastic day.
Every day is a fantastic day
You have the best voice, it really sets the moods for the content
With all that DNA evidence, the American in me automatically goes toward a cop, child/family member of a cop, or family member of an important politician. But I don't know what Japan is like.
ETA: I do know their clearance rate for murders is unreal (95% or so), so it really makes me think that this one hasn't been solved because it's not supposed to be.
The clearance rate is so high because of a ton of forced confessions as they don't want to be responsible for not finding the killer, but yeah, it just makes it more as if they cannot make THIS arrest for certain reasons...like...the criminal being connected with someone who has power...
@540マンモス Yes, but in modern times, that's becoming irrelevant due to so many genealogy projects. One would think that if they put the suspect's DNA onto these sites, they'd find relatives without a problem. But again, maybe that stuff isn't big in Japan. I honestly don't know.
@@roboticzamat Exactly my thought. If they do shady shit to close cases, then you'd think they'd be even more gung ho to find some rando to pin this on, especially because it's so famous and people are so upset by it. But, on the other hand, if they're trying to protect a killer, that's also incentive to find a rando. So who knows?
@@caseyd9471
Exactly.
We can only speculate.
Hopefully, we'll see some resolution and justice for this poor family one day.
🙏
exactly my thoughts
babe wake up, new Cadaber upload
Former soldier here. Our DNA is all in military databases, there is nooooooo way a military member could leave any kinda DNA evidence anywhere on a crime scene and not get caught. Especially that much.
What country are you a solider in? Do they take your DNA for their own database? Do they share that database with other countries? If you’re American, can Japan’s local law enforcement just go in and test against the entire US military?? I’m going to say likely not. So unless the perpetrator was JAPANESE military, this point is moot. I suspect he wasn’t a Japanese citizen
@@maddieb.4282yeah idk what he meant by that, Suspect might've been an American Soldier stationed in Japan
I'm sure that's a common practice nowadays but was it a requirement back in 2000?
I'm of the opinion that the killer did manage to enter the house through the second floor window. There's a chain link fence right underneath the window which wouldn't be hard to scale. Otherwise if he did went in from the front door, he would've encountered Miko first and Miko wouldn't have tumbled to the bottom of the stairs. It also explained why Rei was strangled, because he was the first taken out. If Miko was attacked first, Rei would've been awoken and would've put up a more terrible fight. But it's likely that he left through the front door because it would be easier at that point.
it would have leave imprints
Is there a full song version of your intro? It’s catchy and I want to listen to it in my car
Did the father work in a field where contact with westerners was common? Even before i got to the point in the video (in the second half) about the possible killer being half white, i thought the two kids had very western names. Nina and Ray. Work related conflict that led to revenge?
Ed) 4:50 Just checked wikipedia and it says the wife’s mother came to the house after her calls went unanswered. Not the husband’s mother.
New to your channel but love that intro lol.
Yay new Cadaber video !
Fuck yeah new Cadaber. TH-cam failed to notify me!
16:22 Plenty of people in the military are not experienced in combat. Basic training really is very basic. They don't spend much time on fighting with a knife.
Plus the real thing is a lot more stressful, and this could have been an impulsive crime, so the killer was probably not thinking clearly. Even well trained people make dumb mistakes when they're panicking.
The only reason I doubt it was a member of the military is they should have him fingerprints and other information that would have matched evidence at the crime scene.
When I found your channel I felt as if I found a gold mine! You have 223K subs currently - and Im sure you'll see a million at least! 🖤
"No distracting ads in any of the videos," he says during the distracting ad for Skill Share
That’s the only thing I don’t like about this channel. I pay for TH-cam premium so I don’t have to bother with ads and it’s annoying how the ads are built into the videos 😐 it’s a first world problem but it’s still annoying.
Wake up babe New Cadaber dropped
Sad story, is there any way to know what was Mikio; & Yasuko profession?
Truly one of the most mysterious case of all time and wish it been solved
How did he pay for the knife?
18:24 I vote you the goat for storytelling and presentation skills. Awesome job. I appreciate 21:29 21:30 21:31 what you do. Thanks for all your work.
Love your intro man. Wish i could listen to that song in whole and on repeat.
when you hear that intro music. you know youre in for a good video
I’m running out of videos to binge on this channel 😭
In all fairness anyone who grew up with siblings or in a creaky house is likely to know the back against the wall strategy. I learnt to do it so I could scare my little brother without being spotted or making noise lol
Kinda curious how DNA could be used to determine the length of the suspect's hair...
That being said, this was another phenomenal presentation, Cadaber. You're getting better with every new episode. Keep up the great work, bud!
I'd say they literally found some strands of hair in the clothing and items, and the length of them is what was used to get that information, and also used the root of those to gather more DNA
As far as i know, DNA in itself cant measure changable easthetics like hair (unlike it sometimes can with genetic things like height, natural hair colour, etc)
haha i actually looked up when that was said... like DNA knows if you cut your hair or not.. very very peculiar!!
There's a big problem with the soldier theory; the US military keeps fingerprints and DNA samples of service personnel, which they've been doing since 1990. And even after you're discharged, they keep that on file for another 50 years. I don't know if South Korea and Japan's military branches are the same but being quite modern and modeled on the US's, I'd be pretty surprised if they didn't also have DNA databases for their own troops.
Which indicates to me that the killer is not a member of the military, but probably one those guys who has a hard-on for the military and likes to play soldier but couldn't join. Someone with military training would know how inefficient strangulation is (unlike in the movies, it takes a surprisingly long time.) Also, when using a knife, trained soldiers tend to go for the throat, the heart or the femoral artery. The knife this guy grabbed was weak and unsuited to the task.
Either that or the killer is a non combat unit
After all,Military service in south Korea is Mandatory for all men ages 18-35
this kind of case had me thinking of a couple things that i haven't seen discussed.
-What was Mikio's job? I haven't seen this angle talked about before, but i wonder if it had to do with workplace relations/issues like an affair or if mikio's job did anything in particular to clients like a debt collector or something
-If it had something to do w weird internet group in the early 2000s, esp k*ll*ng/su*c*d* cults/pacts; it was at least an influential thing in anime/j-horror at the time too.
-if they have footage of him purchasing the knife, why can't they identify? Surely they can at least track the commute to an extent for even more clues at the least right? Its mind blowing at how much evidence they have and yet they can't close it, makes me wonder if its deeper; like if the suspect is related to military/korean military, japan and korea don't have the best relationship iirc.
Keep making this content, I can tell you’ll become a big channel like disrupt one day
Did they not trace the buyers of the super rare shirt? I feel like that would have been a good lead
I watch so much true crime, I can’t believe i havent heard of this one
always a good night when cadaber uploads :)
dude just went sicko mode for a minute, went on 2chan and ate some icecream, thebn went home.
What was the one document he singled out and dumped into the tub?
Did it have any significance?
What kind of microphone do you use?
Just after 1 in the morning here in sweden so this came perfect :)
👚👚👚🧵🧥รีคนอื่นเขาจะได้ไม่ 🦄🐴🦄🦄🐧
Hello from the other side of the world in Portland Oregon 🥳
@@f0da350 shove my unicorn plate into my dogs mouth and rinse the gibbet off
Hello from a Texan vacationing in Colorado! Been to Sweden once in 2008 and loved the country!
@@nickinportland مسخصحصThey are coming 👹
HOW DOES THIS SOUND . . . (I would like some ideas on this. By no neans do I think I've solved it but feel free to agree, build on my theory or play "devil's advocate")
Now that I've watched the whole thing I must say that this is a very intriguing case. I really don't know where to begin or what to think. The amount of people fingerprinted and DNA tested, the amount of investigators involved and the amount of evidence left at the scene is ALL just overwhelming! The only thing I can say is that the sand from Edwards AFB is very interesting and it shows a POSSIBLE link to the US so with that being a possibility it may be a good idea to ask the US if they can use our CODIS to run the DNA profile through our system AND ALSO it would be a great idea to run the DNA profile through all these DIY/AT HOME DNA test companies data bases cuz they store the DNA profiles of everyone that sends in DNA kits. Theres a possibility that the suspect or a family member used an AT HOME DNA KIT and they may find a FAMILIAL match. Thats all i can think of.
This is one of the few cases that I think about occasionally.
To me it sort of seems like the killer left behind all that evidence as a possible set-up. That is a lot of DNA to leave behind. Almost like he wanted someone else to take the blame, so he took someone else’s clothes and belongings and left them at the crime scene.
I wondered that, everything so specific.
If he was former military, his DNA would be on file in the US. It could more likely be US military civilian contractor.
Exactly. I wrote this in a comment before seeing yours. Our DNA is in so many different databases it's not possible to just disappear like that.
Metasequoia help! Months ago I saw a reference to a metasequoia leaf left behind at the Miyazawa home. I can't seem to find it again, anyone happen to know the TH-cam website where I might have seen it? Thanks!
A jacket of which only ten exist in the country and STILL no suspect, really?
I love the setagaya family mystery😁😁😁
Cadaber intro: [We be grooving]
Cadaber video: “And he left her intestines hanging from the rafters”
Re: the Military theory. I would be less inclined to believe that he is an American soldier, and more inclined to believe that he might have been an American Soldier's son. A fair number of American Soldiers who serve in South Korea take Korean wives, and if he had then transferred to Japan he probably would have taken his family with him.
Missed you pal
I wish you had added details about how the son had special needs-and about what benefits the family may have received for it? And what was the father’s and/or mother’s profession(s)? They lived in a house that was enormous by Japanese standards and yet you don’t address their home and income. And no speculation as to why the son was attacked first..? Would it not follow that the son was the primary target? And then why..? A hatred of the boy, his disability, maybe resentment of the benefits a family would receive for his care? And as the method of killing him was very personal it’s someone who knew him and perhaps had worked with him or someone who lost out on something that the child and his family instead received. I can’t imagine this theory hasn’t been explored.
Wow, that's a different slant on it! Now I have to look elsewhere for more details.
Current active duty here, lot of troops do NOT know hand to hand combat lol
Okay, so, I am still finishing this video so this is probably covered but these two parts stand out as interesting to me:
"The killer's unusual DNA indicates a father of East Asian background and a mother with roots in southern Europe or the Adriatic." "Sand particles were also discovered within the hip bag that the culprit had abandoned at the site, which was later proven to have originated in the Nevada desert, more specifically the Edwards Air Force Base area in California."
Is it not out of the question that one (or both) of the killer's parents could have been military? That the killer himself wasn't former military, but one of his parents and that's how the sand got there, and why the killer did not appear to be proficient in his killing tactics? This, of course, does not really indicate motive (to me, if it does for someone else, I'm sure they'll speak up), but so far, I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned, or maybe I missed it or maybe I missed a detail that could rule this idea out. With how many investigators have been involved in this lengthy mystery, I'm sure many of them likely contemplated the notion and had solid reason to rule it out.
I'm just curious.
I agree with you a person from a military family or the killer being a soldier or something himself makes the most sense.
@@33degreesnorth28 Yeah, that's my thinking too. It seems reasonable to assume that they'd have just enough access to that style of sand. Not to mention the Asian v. European roots would make sense, often people in the military marry people they fall in love with in other regions of the world, or both could even be in the same military group, and simply got married and had their kid. I'm sure that the many investigators who've gone over this over the years have considered this. I'm just surprised it wasn't mentioned in the video, or any other details of that specific murder in other sites I've read about. It just seems strange to me.
@@JDoesThingsAndStuff Right Asian and European routes and maybe the parents met while being stationed in Japan and settled down. That fits really good to the Dna evidence.
You should make a video about the case^^ there's not many videos that really go through those details.