Tokyo, Dec. 30 (Jiji Press)–The brutal murder of a family of four in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward remains unresolved a quarter century after the crime, despite many clues left at the scene, such as fingerprints and bloodstains, and police continue their desperate search for a person responsible for the fatal assault case.
As suspects in some other murder cases that had been unresolved for a long period were arrested this year, Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department is redoubling efforts to identify a suspect in the Setagaya case while trying to prevent the incident from being forgotten.
In the high-profile case that occurred between the late hours of Dec. 30, 2000, and the small hours of the following day, corporate worker Mikio Miyazawa, 44, his wife Yasuko, 41, and their daughter, Niina, 8, were fatally stabbed with a kitchen knife and the couple’s son, Rei, 6, was strangled at their home in Setagaya Ward’s Kamisoshigaya district. Miyazawa was stabbed more than 10 times, and Yasuko and Niina dozens of times each. More than 100,000 yen in cash was stolen from the house.
In addition to fingerprints and footprints, type A blood was collected from more than 10 places at the site of the crime. DNA profiles were also detected, and items such as a black jacket, a shirt, gloves and a pouch were left at the scene.
At the time, the police thought the case would be resolved soon. But their investigations hit a snag as the family had no specific trouble, and the culprit and motives have remained unknown for 25 years.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
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