The Zodiac-inspired case that stunned Kobe, Japan | Forensic Files

on the evening of july 11 1990 twenty-three-year-old sarah mcdermott stepped off the train at kannan railway
station and headed towards her car in the dimly lit adjoining car park she was never seen again
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our website this episode involves a crime against children it may not be suitable for all
listeners on may 5 each year japan celebrates a national holiday called children's day
it's a day for families to gather to honour the children in their lives and to wish them a lifetime of health and
happiness in 1997 in the city of kobe located on the southern side of japan's main island
honshu children's day had added significance two years prior kobe experienced a devastating earthquake that killed 4
600 of its people as the city rebuilt that's residents looked towards the children as a symbol
of hope for their future dating back thousands of years children's day is buried deep in ancient
tradition large colorful carp streamers are hung outside houses of those with children to
symbolize strength and success while stalls of famous samurai warriors are proudly displayed indoors
families treat themselves with cashawamachi rice cakes filled with sweet bean paste
some families on children's day bathe in a tub sprinkled with iris leaves and roots
it is believed that the iris promotes good health not only that bathing in iris leaves is said to ward
off evil spirits [Music] [Music] [Applause] approximately 540 kilometers south west
of tokyo on osaka bay the city of kobe is divided into nine different areas called wards
the sumer ward situated along the coastline of kobe is an idyllic spot with a white sandy beach boardwalks
cafes and cherry blossom trees visible on the surrounding hillsides however even the beautiful scenery could
not conceal the awful sight that was presenting itself on residential streets of the area in march 1997
dead cats some strangled and others mutilated were found on the sidewalks the horrified and distressed locals were
at a loss to explain the attacks on sunday march 16 1997 10 year old hayaka yamashita left her
home in sumer ward although she was by herself the side of the little girl walking amongst the
crowd raised no concerns from passers-by known worldwide for being a safe country
it is common for young people to run errands in japan without parental supervision
kobe the seventh largest city in japan is regarded as one of the safest unbeknownst to ayaka she was being
watched by someone as she emerged from the crowd and walked down a deserted street
the perpetrator saw his chance [Applause] upon returning home afterwards the perpetrator wrote the following entry in
his diary i carried out sacred experiments today to confirm how fragile human beings are
i brought the hammer down when the girl turned to face me i think i hit her a few times but i was
too excited to remember ayaka yamashita was found unconscious and taken to hospital
she succumbed to her injuries seven days later [Music] an investigation into ayaka's death
failed to unearth any suspects authorities suspected her killer was also responsible for stabbing a
nine-year-old girl that day as well seriously wounded but not fatally the girl could not describe her attacker
only her immense surprise as an unknown male approached and drove a knife into her stomach
the community were appalled as homicide in kobe was nearly unheard of let alone the murder of a child
children's day passed without celebration for a yaka yamashita's parents investigators were still no closer to
catching her killer they theorised that the murder may be related to a similar attack where a
group of girls had been set upon by a male yielding a hammer earlier that month although with nowhere near the severity
encountered by ayaka the group of girls did not recognize their attacker and could do little to
shed blood on who he might be meanwhile dead cats stopped appearing on the sidewalks
on saturday may 24 1997 just over two months after the attack on ayaka yamashita eleven-year-old jun jose
left his home in corbeir just before 6pm although intellectually impaired and only able to say his name the
exceedingly friendly and happy jun was more than capable of making the 500 metre journey from his parents house to
his grandfather's house that night some of his friends were waiting at a nearby train station and called out to
the popular dune as he walked by the perpetrator watched on he approached jun because of june's trusting nature he was
easily led into the hilly and deserted woodlands when jun failed to appear at his
grandfather's house his anxious family phoned the local police after conducting a search of the local
area they failed to find any sign of the young boy suddenly dead cats began appearing on the streets
of sumo ward once more three days later a janitor at the kobe municipal tomiga orca junior high school
where jun haase attended as a student arrived for a day's work at 6 40 a.m he approached the large iron
front gate to the school and recoiled at the side in front of him the decapitated head of jun hase was
affixed to the gate jun's eyes had been gouged out and his mouth had been cut open from ear to ear
[Music] a piece of paper was wedged between june haase's teeth retrieving the 10 centimeter piece of
paper police discovered a note written in red ink excerpts of the note taunted police
reading this is the beginning of the game try to stop me if you can you stupid police
and i desperately want to see people die it is a thrill for me to commit murder nothing makes me more excited than
killing a bloody judgment is needed for my years of great bitterness i have gone through with my long held
revenge catch me if you can also written on the note were two english words school misspelled as s h double o double
l and killer the note was signed with the alias sayito sakakibara a combination of six
kanji symbols for the words sake devil rose sacred and fight at the very bottom written in black ink
was a symbol not used in the japanese language it consisted of a shape similar to a
teardrop above which was drawn a circle divided into four quarters the act of sending the police a
taunting message via a handwritten letter bore a striking resemblance to another infamous crime spree the zodiac
killer having been active decades earlier near 9000 kilometers away in california
japanese authorities knew they weren't dealing with the zodiac but a copycat schools in kobe were closed while police
scoured the area the six kanji letters signed at the bottom of the note were found graffitied
on outer walls of the school grounds and two dead cats were found nearby when searching a secluded woodland area
approximately five hundred meters from the school the body of june hase was found
an autopsy revealed that he had been strangled to death before being decapitated and that the strangling took
place soon after he had gone missing three days prior over 400 local police questioned nearly
everyone in the middle class neighborhood they learned that in the week prior to
jun haase's murder a man aged in his 30s had been seen by a number of witnesses staring at the school from a parked car
the hunt began for the man who could only be described as wearing a navy jacket and glasses
authorities believed that the killer of jun hasse might have been a former pupil
at the school they theorised that he may have been inclined to carry out such an attack as
retaliation for being mistreated or bullied during his school years detectives fervently checked school
records of past pupils in the hope of identifying a person of interest nobody stood out
meanwhile anxiety swept the streets of kobe a city completely unaccustomed to such a
brutal murder parents accompanied their children to and from school and forbade them from
going outdoors unsupervised two hundred and fifty extra police officers were dispatched to patrol the
neighborhood japanese prime minister ryutero hashimoto called for the killer to be
found as soon as possible yet he eluded police housewife takako miyoshi told the
washington post i feel resentment toward the police who have not been able to do
anything two months have passed since one girl was stabbed and one killed and as time passes it becomes more difficult
to solve the case although detectives were struggling to come up with the suspect they did have
some clues behind the method of his killing linguists and psychologists suggested
that the killer may have been influenced by a television series that aired in japan the year prior
in the popular thriller the perpetrator stuffed a rose into the mouth of each of
his victims as a calling card once again the killing of cats in the neighborhood
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system on the evening of july 11 1990 twenty-three-year-old sarah mcdermott stepped off the train at kannan railway
station and headed towards her car in the dimly lit adjoining car park she was never seen again
true crime author vicki petraetis known for her case file presents series the vanishing of vivian cameron became
fascinated by sarah mcdermott's case while researching and writing a book on the frankston serial killings
a spade of brutal murders that some believe may be connected to sarah's disappearance
join vicki for her second case file presents podcast as she tries to solve the mystery of what happened when sarah
took those final steps towards her car more than 30 years ago searching for sarah mcdermott is a case
file presents podcast available for free only on spotify from november 15. stay tuned until the end of today's
episode to hear the official trailer and follow searching for sarah mcdermott on
spotify thank you for listening to this episode's ads by supporting our sponsors
you support case file on june 6 1997 two weeks after the murder of jun haase a brown envelope
arrived at the offices of newspaper kobe shinbun it was postmarked to june 3 and had no
name or return address the rambling 1400 word letter inside was signed by sayito sakakibara
the murder of jun haase had dominated a news headlines since the young boy's death
in their haste to publish new details on the crime including the note that had been shoved in june's mouth the media
had erroneously mentioned that the note had been signed onibara or devil's rose in english
[Music] this letter sought to clarify this mistake with sayito sakakibara writing
from now on if you misread my name or spoil my mood i will kill three vegetables a week
if you think i can kill only children you are greatly mistaken detectives understood his use of the
word vegetables as a disparaging term for people or for those with an intellectual or physical disability
the letter went on if i was the same as i was when i was born i probably would not have taken the
trouble to place a severed head at the front gate of a junior high school anyone who tries can enjoy killing
people furtively as one who has led and continues to lead an invisible existence i have gone out
of my way to attract public attention because i want to be recognised as a real person
at the very least in your fantasies at the same time i have not forgotten to take revenge on the compulsory education
system which has created me as an invisible existence and the society which gave birth to this education
system however i would gain nothing from me revenge save i'm burdening myself of the
load i've carried until now so i discussed this with a friend who alone in the world is invisible like
myself he said for revenge that is worthy rather than miserable mix your revenge with murder
change your hobby from murder to revenge and you will create a new world which is
yours alone moved by those words i have started this killing game but even now i don't know why i enjoy
killing i can only say that it is in my nature it is only when i kill that i can be
freed from daily hatreds and feel a sense of relief it is only other people's pain
that can ease my pain the arrival of this ladder furthered the detective's belief that sayito
sakakibara was influenced by the zodiac killer as he was well known for sending messages to authorities through
newspapers they speculated that the killing and mutilation of cats pre-empted each
murder other than that they had a few leads to go on the man in his 30s that they were
chasing was not identified on june 27 three weeks after the letter arrived at the newspaper kobe shinbun
someone came forward with information to the police they knew of a person who was
particularly cruel to animals and who had confided that he had killed a cat for fun and buried it
detectives went to investigate the next day the lead detective on the jun hasse murder case held a televised
press conference after apprehending the male person for torturing cats he confessed to the
murder of jun haase the bludgeoning murder of a yaka yamashita the hammer attack on the group of girls
and the stabbing of the nine-year-old girl who survived the ordeal he gave no motive to detectives other
than saying i simply wanted to try out various methods of killing he also admitted to being inspired to
kill by comic book hero baramon who used beheading as one form of killing his enemies
the public were stunned as the detective announced they would not be releasing the name of the killer
this was because the perpetrator who had the entire city of kobe living in fear for over three months
was not an adult he was a 14 year old school student to protect the killer's identity he was
given the name boy a searching boyier's bedroom detectives found a book about the 1990s new york
zodiac killer copycat violent comics and horror movies as well as his diary in which he documented his killings
one week after the death of a yaka yamashita he wrote this morning my mum told me
poor girl the girl that was attacked seems to have died there is no sign of me being caught
he then went on to thank an imaginary god he named barmoir dokkeesian for keeping him safe
also taken into evidence was red tape identical to the tape used to seal the envelope sent to the newspaper and a
knife which boye admitted to using to behead jun haase along with a hacksaw neighbors were stunned by the arrest
telling the media that boye came from a regular middle class working family he could often be seen playing table
tennis with his two younger brothers or gardening with his family in their backyard
boyier's father worked for an established company and his mother did community work
he seemed to them like a normal and polite teenager classmates of boye told a different
story at the tomiga orca junior high school where boy a was in the third grade his
classmates told of his love of cutting up frogs and torturing cats shortly before his attack on jun haase
he was expelled from school after bludgeoning a fellow student who bullied him with an iron pipe
according to his classmates boyier would talk to jun jose in the playground the discovery that these horrendous
murders had been carried out by a 14 year old with a hatred towards the education system caused despair amongst
the japanese population prime minister ryutarou hashimoto asked on television where did we go wrong
government officials and members of the public alike were quick to blame violence depicted in manga comics video
games and on film the nation's construction minister said movies lacking any literary or
educational merit made for just showing cruel scenes can easily be watched by adolescent children
adults should be blamed for this in response the education ministry announced a study into the relationship
between violence in the media and its effect on young people they also vowed to create a new
curriculum in schools to focus on spiritual education and teaching the preciousness of life
japan's education system also came under scrutiny for the pressure forced upon students without care given to their
emotional well-being some speculated that the stress of intensive examinations became too much
for the boy and he lashed out in violence a mental health counsellor in corvair was reported in the guardian as being
particularly struck by boy a's claim that he felt invisible in his letter to the newspaper
he said his letter pinpoints a basic social problem the japanese are not good at
communicating on an individual basis the boy wanted to communicate he wanted to connect
but unfortunately he couldn't and his anger and feelings accumulated [Music] because of his age boye served time in a
medical reformatory for juveniles in western tokyo to receive psychiatric treatment and counselling
due to the seriousness of his crimes in the year 2000 japanese legislature was amended to lower the age of criminal
responsibility from 16 to 14. on march 11 2004 the japanese ministry of justice announced that 21 year old
boy a was being released on a provisional basis with full release to follow in january 2005.
as reported in the japan times the head of the parole board who decided on his release said
the board has interviewed the man on various occasions and closely examined his correctional state
we came to conclude that psychiatric care and correctional education at reformatories have obtained good results
boyier's lawyer asked that his identity and whereabouts be protected telling the
japan times if people around him make a big fuss and put him on the spot that would make it
difficult for him to reintegrate into society by realizing the value of his own life
he now feels he wants to make up for having taken people's lives he has grown up a lot in a short period
of time i am not worried about the possibility of repeat offences boyier was released without incident and
found work as a day labourer his identity and whereabouts were protected through her lawyer boya's mother
released the statement to the japan times saying our son is now doing his best to have
courage to plunge into the world of anxieties and uncertainties i believe there will be a long and tough
road ahead for us and our son but if possible i hope the public will watch over us
quietly [Music] in june 2005 five months after his full release boyier published his memoir titled zakka
under his pseudonym sayito sakakibara some bookstores refused to stock the memoir but it quickly became a japanese
bestseller the book's publisher defended its release claiming that it gave an important insight into the mind of a
killer in the epilogue boye writes i couldn't keep quiet about my past anymore i had to write
otherwise i thought i would go insane father vehemently opposed the release of the book
according to the japan times boye sent him a copy with a handwritten letter of apology inside
zekker detailed what had happened to june including how boyet had lured him into the woodlands to play before
strangling and decapitating him and taking his head home in a plastic bag according to his memoir boyet who
called himself an incorrigible sexual deviant then took the head into the bathroom
locked the door and committed an act far more heinous than murder as printed in the japan times another
excerpt of zekka reads when i advanced to junior high school i had already become bored of killing cats
and gradually found myself fantasizing about how it would feel to murder human beings like me
although boyer apologized to the families of his victims in the book jun father thought the apology shallow and
false saying the book completely trampled on our feelings it is clear that he is not sorry for
what he did according to the star the memoir also published the letters of apology that
boye had sent her ayaka yamashita's mother every year since her death originally thinking that the letters
were sincere the printing of these in his memoir angered ayaka's mother who realized they were only written to be
shared in his book after the release of zucker some members of the public questioned whether boyer
was rehabilitated at all passages of text showed a man unrepentant for his actions
in one excerpt he described his feelings after placing jun haase's head on the gate to the school
saying let me confess something i thought the sight was a beauty i felt like i was born just to see the
ethereal beauty of what was in front of my eyes i thought i could die in 2015 boyer launched a website about
himself titled the unbearable transparency of being in which she posted strange images of an unclothed
man with black fabric covering his face the man whom boye claimed to be himself was then photoshopped onto a variety of
images one was the torso of the naked man photoshopped onto the body of a scorpion
another was of a naked man lying on his back holding an alien slug-like creature
with teeth between his legs in retaliation for the launch of the website which seemed only to serve
boyier's own vanity tabloid magazine the shukan post exposed the boya's real identity
according to the shukan post boyer's real name is shinichiro azuma in 2015 he lived in the saeetama
prefecture north of tokyo in 2021 it is unknown if he still lives there or if he has changed location
he is not required to report his whereabouts to any parole boards and is free to live his life with no
restrictions boye could be anywhere [Music] [Music] i've been writing about real police
cases for nearly three decades now and there are few more tragic than the case of sarah mcdermott with sarah's
disappearance there's an element of patience of being collected she was always a very good
daughter if she was out someone going to be late she would ring and let us know she was
seen by several witnesses walking toward the car park and then sarah mcdermott was gone when she's come down the bottom
of the stairs and walked towards the car park she's virtually walked into the darkness when sarah's family reported
her missing police mounted an extensive search i could see blood on the bitumen underneath the car that
was parked at the driver's side of her car the the blood on the ground it sort of indicated to everybody that they'd
been foul play a couple of suspects emerged ahead of the rest and he said well when i do get out you'll be one of
the first people i look for and i said why is that and he said because i just like to kill you she said you know that
murder that was up at the cannon nook station i was there with two other blokes and i'm worried because i don't
know how staunch they are who knows what he did if he killed sarah and disposed of her body maybe he thinks i can get
away with this they don't know where she is they don't know who did it just how many other women were followed from the
canonical railway station will never know so i was walking along there and i could
hear footsteps behind me and they were getting closer and they yelled out to me don't take the shortcut take the bridge
i just think those men at the dotto saved my life the evidence is out there so pulled out a couple of the cards and
looked at the name and it said sarah mcdermott searching for sarah mcdermott out now for free only on spotify

Case 196: Boy A

*** Warning: This case involves a child victim ***

In March 1997, residents of the city of Kobe, Japan were horrified when dead and mutilated cats began appearing at random along sidewalks. The public’s horror intensified when two children in the area – Ayaka Yamashita and Jun Hase were savagely murdered within a few months of each other...

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Jessica Forsayeth Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn

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RESOURCES

For all credits and sources please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-196-boy-a

Brief Summary

The episode discusses Sarah McDermott's disappearance and the murders of Ayaka Yamashita and Jun Hase by Sayito Sakakibara in Japan.

Key points

The Disappearance of Sarah McDermott. On July 11, 1990, Sarah McDermott stepped off a train and vanished without a trace.
Chilling Diary Entry. The perpetrator wrote about his 'sacred experiments' after attacking a young girl.
A Taunting Message. A note found with a victim taunted police and revealed the killer's intentions.
Confession of a Young Killer. A 14-year-old boy confessed to multiple murders, shocking the community.
The Release of Boyier. Boyier is released from a medical reformatory, raising questions about his rehabilitation.
Public Outrage Over Memoir. Boyier's memoir sparks anger and debate over his sincerity and rehabilitation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She was never seen again.

The mysterious disappearance of Sarah McDermott.

0:14WatchNov 13, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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