For the residents of the quiet district of Kamisoshigaya, the year 2000 marked the start of changes they never saw coming. From gentrification to the unstoppable expansion of Tokyo, the families living on this once bustling street saw many harsh realities as the times changed, but on the night of December 30th, 2000, at the turn of the year, they would be faced with a murder so gruesome, it would change the landscape of the neighbourhood, and the country, forever. The Setagaya family, composed of four members, father Mikio Miyazawa (44), mother Yasuko (41), daughter Niina (8) and son Rei (6), once lived in a busy neighbourhood bustling with families. But as the century turned and Tokyo grew, many of the family's neighbours sold their property and moved away from the unending bustle of the city. By December 2000, the Setagaya family was one of only four homes left in the area. The Miyazawa home, on the outside, looks like one big house, but it’s better described as two attached houses. One was occupied by the Miyazawa family, and the other, by members of Yasuko’s family, mostly her mother but occasionally her sister and brother in law. Realising the need to move into a larger home and community for their growing family, the Setagayas were also planning to move away from the neighbourhood, as they had already sold their land to the city, who was planning to use the space to expand the nearby Soshigaya park, but Yasuko decided to delay the move as she was concerned for how the adjustment to a new home and area would impact her children, especially her youngest Rei who was living with a developmental disorder. As a tutor herself, Yasuko knew the importance of a stable environment for education, and had taught many children at the cram school, basically after-school tutoring, that she ran out of her home. To all who knew them, the Setagayas were a tight-knit family, they were hardworking and upstanding members of their community, but all of this changed the night of December 30th, 2000. The day of December 30th started like any other, and like many families shopping for New Years celebrations, the Setagaya family had started the day at shops near the Chitose Karasuyama Station. After completing their new years shopping, the family went home to spend a relaxing night eating dinner and watching TV together, before finally heading to bed. What happened in the following hours of that night has confounded many for decades now, and it is still under speculation, but as far as we know, this is what happened. Sometime after 11:00pm, on the night of December 30th, a man approached the Setagaya family home through the nearby Soshigaya park, and using a fence in the backyard of the home, climbed to the second floor bathroom window. Although some sources say that he’d also used a tree to climb to the window, as there were broken branches in the backyard. Nevertheless, after reaching the open window, the perpetrator removed the window screen and entered the house. After leaving the bathroom, the perpetrator entered the closest bedroom to his entry point, which turned out to be 6 year old Rei’s bedroom, and while Rei was sleeping alone in his bed, the perpetrator strangled Rei to death, and left his body in bed. Rei was the only victim to be strangled. The perpetrator then turned his attention to the father, Mikio Miyazawa, who was awake at the time, on the first floor finishing up work. But here is where the details start to become unclear. Some sources say that Mikio, upon hearing the commotion upstairs, rushed up the stairs and came face to face with the killer. Upon seeing Mikio, the killer then pulled out a sashimi knife, a knife that’s commonly used for cutting seafood, and proceeded to stab the father multiple times as he tried to resist. During this fight, some sources state that Mikio fell down the stairs where he eventually died of blood loss as a result of the various stab wounds he sustained. However, other sources claim that the killer went downstairs and killed Mikio there, and during the attack, Mikio had tried to run up the stairs but was unable to reach the top, falling back down to the first floor where he later died. All we know definitively is that one of Mikio’s slippers were found on the staircase, and Mikio’s body was found at the base of the stairs, with multiple stab wounds across his body and a fragment of the sashimi knife used to kill him still embedded in his skull. The perpetrators' next and last victims would be Yasuko and Niina, who were both sleeping in the attic. Not much has been confirmed about the details of their murder, but it's widely believed that both mother and daughter were attacked as they were sleeping due to bloodstains on the futon, and sometime either before or during the attack, the perpetrator disposed of his, now broken, sashimi knife and took a normal western style knife from the families kitchen to complete the murders. During this time, the mother and daughter tried to leave the attic through the foldable ladder that connected the attic to the main house, but were eventually killed. Their bodies were found on the second floor at the top of the stairs, hunched close together. Niina’s body was also found to be missing teeth, indicating that she was not only stabbed, but beaten as well. Forensic evidence shows that 8 year old Niina was the last to die. But what set this murder apart from other cases and turned it into a media firestorm was not just the murder itself, but what happened after. After the cold-blooded killing of a family of 4, including 2 children, evidence shows the perpetrator stayed in the house for at least 2 hours after committing the murder. Now, the exact order of these events is disputed, but the actions of the perpetrator during this time are what later dubbed this case the “Goldilocks murder”. Evidence shows that the perpetrator calmly walked past the bodies of the family members, headed to the kitchen, and took out a few tubs of ice cream from the fridge, as well as barley tea, and some sources state even some melon, and began eating them only minutes after the crime. Oddly enough, the killer did not even use a spoon, but instead squeezed the tubs to push the ice cream to the top, then used his mouth to take bites out of it, leaving saliva and fingerprint evidence all over the kitchen. While eating in the kitchen, the killer found the family’s first aid kit and used it to patch up a cut he had sustained on his hand during the attack. Once he had patched up the wound, he left the bloodied bandages there, conveniently leaving police a blood sample, which they would later find. After leaving the kitchen, the perpetrator headed to the storage room on the first floor and rummaged through the family’s documents, before pulling out a drawer of them and taking them to the second floor bathroom where he dumped them into the bathtub. At some point, he also used the toilet in the second floor bathroom to defecate. He then wiped his hands on the bathroom towel, once again smearing his blood on it, and left the bathroom, neglecting to flush. Some sources say that the killer proceeded to take a nap on the family’s sofa after this, but this is a point that has been disputed. What we do know is that at some point, the killer had decided to remove his jacket, hat, shirt, and scarf, and left behind all of these items as well as two handkerchiefs, a fanny pack, and a pair of black gloves. Both murder weapons, the sashimi knife the killer brought with him, as well as the kitchen knife he switched to during the attack, were also left at the scene. Although the order of the events has been disputed, one thing we know for certain is that at 1:18am, the family’s computer logs show that the perpetrator turned on Mikio’s computer and created a new folder, and although unconfirmed, is said to have also used the internet to go to the website of a local theatre company. These logs also show that the computer was turned on around 10:00 am as well, and early on in the investigation, police used the computer logs to determine the length of time the perpetrator may have stayed in the house. Knowing for certain that the computer was accessed once at 1:18am and once at around 10:00 am, police thought that the killer must have stayed in the family’s home for almost 10 hours after the murder, all while navigating around the 4 bodies he left at the scene, but after further investigation, it was determined that the computer connection made at 10:00am was likely an accident, and done as a result of the accidental pushing of the mouse when the woman who found the bodies entered the house. Therefore, it's likely that the perpetrator stayed in the home for at least 2 hours, and likely left the house between 1:18am and dawn. The next morning, at around 10:30 am, Yasuko’s mother, Harua jako, the family’s neighbour, went over to the family’s home to check on them after Haruko’s calls went unanswered. Upon opening the door and proceeding into the house, she saw the body of her son where the killer left him, at the bottom of the stairs, and after the initial shock, she called the police. Upon arriving at the scene, police were faced with 4 dead bodies and a plethora of evidence left behind. With fingerprints, shoe prints, DNA samples from blood, the killer's discarded clothes and even his unflushed faeces, many thought that the case would be an easy solve. A former senior official even recalls, “The crime scene was a mountain of treasure, and everyone thought that a solution would not be far away.” but in the coming years, this assumption couldn't have been further from the truth. As the nearby Seijo Police, and later, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrived on the scene, the first task they were faced with was collecting and processing every piece of evidence left behind, and with the abundance of evidence that was present at the scene, this proved to be no easy task. Running the fingerprints, analyzing the DNA from the blood samples, and tracking down the origin of the clothing items was a long and tedious job, but eventually the details surmised from each of these pieces of evidence painted a clear picture of who this perpetrator must have been. Firstly, the clothing left behind allowed police to put together a shockingly clear picture of what the killer looked like that night, down to where he shopped for his clothes and what cologne he was wearing, creating a very clear composite to circulate to potential witnesses in the area. With this information, the police could determine the killer was wearing: a gray crusher bucket hat, a baseball shirt that was white with purple sleeves, a cheap plaid scarf with no tags, a UNIQLO Air Tech jacket, black gloves, and a gray and black fanny pack. Using the various footprints left at the scene, investigators were also able to see the type of shoe he was wearing, which was determined to be Slazenger sneakers, 27.5cm in size. Putting all this information together, a composite of the killer’s clothing could be made. Now, with a very clear picture of what the killer’s clothes must have looked like, the police turned their attention to the murder weapon and DNA evidence at the scene. One of the most critical pieces of evidence needed to crack most murder cases is the presence of DNA evidence from the perpetrator, and the killer of the Miyazawa family left swathes of it at the scene. From saliva to hair to blood and feces, the DNA makeup for the killer was all over the house. But while this might’ve been especially exciting for investigators outside Japan, Japanese laws around handling DNA are very strict. In his podcast about the case, investigative journalist Nicolás Obregón interviews various officers in Japan and discovers that all the DNA that was taken and tested from the crime scene was done by an internal department that cannot release information about the results of the DNA tests. This aligns with Japan’s personal information laws, that restricts the sharing of personal information without consent from the individual themselves. So everything in this video about DNA tests or the DNA makeup of the killer was information that was leaked to the press. After thorough analysis of all of this evidence, investigators initially determined that the killer must have been between the ages of 15-35 as he needed to be athletic enough to climb to the second floor window. He was also likely 5 foot 6 or 7, and rather slender, considering the waist belt for the hip bag was 32 inches. The DNA evidence showed that he was a male with type A blood, and his feces proved that his last meal must have consisted of string beans and sesame seeds. Although, after running his fingerprints, police found no matches to anyone in their system, meaning the perpetrator had no previous criminal record. Now with droves of information about what the killer was wearing and his DNA makeup, the police circulated the composite and details around to the public, but as days and weeks went by, no one could identify who the perpetrator was. In an attempt to stir people’s memory, the police even released a document with highlights of the year and the television programs scheduled for the night of the murder, in a desperate attempt to grant anything that might stir a witness' memory. One of the biggest problems with the case was that although so much physical evidence was left behind, most of it was unremarkable. The clothes were all pieces that have had hundreds of units sold, and could be bought virtually anywhere. The fingerprint evidence showed no matches in Japan. Each of these clues left the police no closer to determining the movements or origin of the perpetrator. That is, until two items of clothing gave police some much needed clues in the case. The items in question were the perpetrators' shoes and hip bag. Each of these items revealed a piece of information that narrowed down the nature of the search. Police found that, upon investigating the origin of the shoes, the 27.5cm size of the Salzenger sneakers worn by the perpetrator were never sold in Japan, but they were sold in South Korea. This allowed police to be able to narrow down the pool of suspects, by determining that the perpetrator had to have, at some point, either lived in or visited Korea. Although, as per Korean law, all Koreans over the age of 17 as well as all those who visit Korea must provide their fingerprints upon arrival, and these fingerprints are held in a national database. Knowing the shoes were from Korea, the Japanese police collaborated with the Korean government and ran the fingerprints they found at the scene with the fingerprint database, and sure enough, no matches were found, leading the police to yet another dead end. Now the second piece of clothing that was investigated was the hip bag, and unlike the shoes, this piece of evidence blew the scale of the investigation well out of Japan, and landed it all the way in the US. Upon analysing the contents of the hip bag, the police found grip tape used in skateboards, trace amounts of the popular men’s cologne Drakkar Noir, and small amounts of sand. Once analysed, this sand was shown to have not come from Japan at all, but all the way from Los Angeles, California. This completely skewed the police’s initial ideas of who the perpetrator may be, and in many ways, landed the police back at the drawing board. As time went on, and tips flooded in, more and more discoveries were made in the case, each one more confusing than the last. Each of these discoveries shed some new light on the case, sometimes clearing, and sometimes convoluting the story even more. For example, early on in the investigation, as police were interviewing people in the area that night, a taxi driver claimed to have picked up three men in the area where the attack took place. These men fit the general age and build the perpetrator was thought to have, and the driver even reported that one of the men was injured and left a bloodstain on his seat after leaving the car. These men could have been the perpetrators but the biggest wrench that it cast in the case was that there were three of them, when evidence from the house points to the fact that there was likely only one killer involved. It was also discovered through eyewitness statements that the day after the murder, nurses and staff at a medical centre in the Tobu Nikko station, a few hours north of Setagaya, reported talking to a man in his mid thirties who had come to the medical centre with a severe injury on his hand. Nurses recall that this injury was so deep that they could see bone. But regardless of the nurses questions about the injury, the man refused to tell staff how he got it, making the interaction strange enough for them to report it to police. And the two handkerchiefs found at the scene were another point of confusion, as one was intact and the other had a hole cut through the middle of it. Police originally appealed to the public to ask if anyone knew of any reason a handkerchief would be cut this way, and using the responses, detectives determined that the handkerchief with the hole was used to put the knife handle through, a common practice for fisherman cutting large fish like tuna, as this would allow the user to have a better grip on the knife. Although some others have suggested that the handkerchiefs were used this way so as to hold it without leaving fingerprints and the other handkerchief was used as a mask to cover the killers face, but why would the killer use a handkerchief to hold the knife, when he left his fingerprints all over the house? These discrepancies in the case stumped police for years, slowing down their progress and eventually decreasing the likelihood of catching the perpetrator, and even with all the evidence they gathered, only a few theories came together. For a family like the Miyazawas, finding a motive for the murder was a near impossible task. As a family, they were very well liked and had no known disputes with anyone else, and certainly no one who would be led to murder their whole family. With the abundance of evidence with no real suspect, the police were forced to navigate every single tip and avenue that could lead them to a motive or theory, and for a case like this they started with the usual suspects. Usually in cases like these, the first theories revolve around a burglary gone wrong, but there are too many aspects of this case that do not adhere to this theory. For example, burglars usually will target houses at times in which they know there will likely be no one home, so for the killer to attack the Miyazawa home in the evening when all occupants are sure to be present is unlikely for a would-be burglar. Not only that, but after breaking into the home, the first thing the perpetrator did was murder the youngest child, someone who posed very little threat. If the perpetrators goal was simply to steal money, his first move would have been going to the place where money is held, but instead of doing this, the perpetrators first action was to enter 6 year old Rei’s room, who was still asleep and unlikely to cause any harm, and strangle him to death. Only after murdering the whole family did the killer even attempt to get to a place where valuables were held, and even then, he left most of it in the house or dumped it into the tub. Some sources state that he left with around 150 thousand yen, which would be the equivalent of around $1500, but almost $2000 more was left behind at the scene, leading police to believe that theft was not his aim. Due to the brutality of the murders and the disregard the perpetrator seemingly had for the evidence left behind, some people believe that this could have been the work of a serial killer or someone with extreme mental issues and homicidal tendencies. The support for this theory comes from not only the complete lack of remorse the killer showed after the murder, as he used the families house like his own while their bodies were still strewn about, but also the fact that the members of the family who seemed to face the worst of the attack were the women. Yasuko’s injuries showed that she had fought her attacker until the end, and suffered extreme damage as a result. Niina, being the last to die, showed severe stab wounds but her injuries revealed that even after death, the perpetrator continued to beat her, leaving her with missing teeth and severe hemorrhaging. Some theorists use this extreme brutality to suggest that the killer could have hated women and targeted his attack on them specifically. Now apart from burglary and the work of a serial killer, the only motive left to investigate was the possibility of a revenge killing, or a grudge. Although, the only roadblock on this theory was that the family was very well liked. Close friends and colleagues told police that “[Mikio] was a congenial man who got on well with everyone - definitely not the sort of person to make enemies.” and certainly no one with enough passion to murder them in cold blood. The only dispute that was mentioned to police was an instance a few days before the murder in which the father of the family, Mikio, made a noise complaint to the local skaters at the skate park behind the family home. One of the most popular theories early on in the case was that due to this complaint, the skaters became irrationally angry with Mikio, and in retaliation, killed his whole family. Admittedly, this theory is very far-fetched, but it did corroborate with the early eyewitness statement from the taxi driver who picked up 3 men shortly after the murder who fit the description for the killer, one of whom had a hand injury when they entered the vehicle. It was thought that these three must have been skaters who frequented the skate park, and while one went in to commit the murders, the other two stood guard. This theory also paired well with the evidence found at the scene, as the clothing left behind was similar in style to something a skater would wear at the time, and the hip bag contained pieces of skater’s tape. Although, after interviewing skaters who skated at the Soshigaya park around the month of the murders, nothing unusual came up and for a motive so inconsequential, the police and public had a hard time believing this is what led to the brutal murder of 4. Although the most common and popular theory stems from the strangest of sources, the almost inconsequential amount of sand found in the killer's hip bag. As mentioned above, the hip bag contained trace amounts of sand that, when analysed, was found to have originated from California, specifically from an area just north of LA. Now why would the killer's bag contain this sand, and how did it find its way all the way back to Setagaya, Japan? For many, this is answered by a very controversial piece of evidence, the DNA of the killer, pulled from the blood samples at the crime scene. Early on in the investigation, the police analysed the DNA the killer left behind at the scene, and created a composite of his ancestry. The results of this test showed that the killer had mixed ancestry, with a mother that was likely from Southern Europe, and a father with East Asian Ancestry. Although the DNA markers on the father do not indicate exactly which country they originate from, it does hold markers that are present in 1 in 13 Japanese people, 1 in 10 Chinese people, and 1 in 4 Korean people. These two pieces of evidence have fueled detectives and internet sleuths alike, and over the years, they have been positing theory after theory, each one more convoluted than the last, so let's dive in. Bringing together the two sticking points of the case, the origin of the sand and the mixed ethnicity of the killer brought to light one of the public’s most talked about theories, that the killer was most likely military. Now how do we know? The answer to this question lies in the sand. As discussed earlier, after analysing the composition of the sand, it was determined that it originated from an area around the Mojave desert in California, coinciding specifically with the sand around the Edwards Air Base. Theorists believe that it was here where the killer, while he was serving in the US army at the air base, picked up the sand that was found in his hip bag during the murder. After serving in the US, he was moved to Japan to most likely serve at the Yokota Air Base, an air base that is coincidentally located only around an hour away from the Miyazawa home. However, for this theory to make sense, the killer, who we have now determined to be a member of the US military, needed to know Japanese, and we know this because evidence shows he could read the documents to determine which he would throw into the tub, and which ones he would leave behind, although, it’s also possible that the killer just threw random documents in the bathtub, but nevertheless, this is where the mixed race ancestry comes in. Some believe that the killer must have been the child of a soldier who married a foreigner during deployment, meaning that although the killer may not have lived in Japan, he learned Japanese from a parent, and perhaps visited Japan growing up, allowing him to feel comfortable with the landscapes and neighbourhoods. Now this theory, although convoluted, checks the boxes on various pieces of evidence. Firstly, the fact that the killer was military makes sense when taking into account the level of strength that was required to inflict this much damage on the family. Part of the reason the police insisted the killer's age must have been on the younger side was the physicality needed to not only scale the back wall of the house to enter through the second floor bathroom window, but also to carry out a murder as violent and gruesome as this. Secondly, the killer being part foreigner made sense, as he may have grown up in another country, meaning the Japanese government would have little record of him. On the other hand, his other part of his ancestry, his part Japanese identity would mean that he was not only fluent in the language, but may have visited Japan with his Japanese parent, meaning he was comfortable enough with the area, transit, and language to know he could remain in the house for hours after the murder without worry, knowing he knew how to get away unseen. Since this theory brings together so many pieces of evidence, it has quickly become a favourite throughout the media and online forums alike. Although it was not the only theory the media picked up, and using the military connection and DNA evidence, a new theory was derived years later from a journalist under the pen name Fumiya Ichihashi, who wrote a book on the murders. In this book, the author claims that the killer was a former member of the South Korean military turned hitman, hired by the company that was developing the Miyazawa's neighbourhood. Ichihashi claims that the DNA analysis holds strong evidence that the killer is South Korean, considering the markers in the DNA were considerably more likely to be found in DNA of Koreans rather than Japanese. As a former member of the South Korean military, the killer would have both the strength and skills to complete a task like this, and this theory also provides something most other theories don’t: a motive. Although the Miyazawas had already sold their land, they kept delaying their move, citing concerns about the children's ability to adjust, and eventually became one of the last families left in the neighbourhood. Ichihashi believes that this made the developers impatient, and to force them out, they decided to hire a hitman to get rid of the family to speed up the redevelopment. This theory supports a few pieces of evidence, namely the military origin which would explain the sand in the hip bag, as well as the DNA evidence that showed markers more prevalent in Korean citizens than Japanese citizens. It also explains the origin of the Slazenger sneakers, as the size the killer had on was only ever sold in Korea. However, the story also leaves many other questions unanswered, like why a hitman would stay at the house for hours after he carried out a hit, and leave so much DNA evidence behind. It also doesn't explain the brutality of the murders, considering the family was beaten and stabbed well after death makes the murder seem almost personal, and not the work of an indifferent third party hitman for hire. Also, as we previously mentioned, fingerprints left at the crime scene were checked with the Korean fingerprint database and showed no matches, meaning the killer couldn’t have been born in or even visited Korea, or had somehow evaded the legal biometrics requirements for years. The last and most far-fetched theory is one that was discussed by the previously mentioned investigative journalist Nicholas Obregon on his podcast “Faceless”. In this theory, he posits that the killer of the Miyazawa family could have been a child or teenager. Although seemingly unbelievable, there are some pieces of evidence that support it, namely, a suspicious forum post on 2chan, an anonymous Japanese text board site, which was later changed to the name 5chan. The post, written by a self proclaimed 13-year old boy going by Mr. Koromutsu, comes at the end of a long chain discussing his and other users personal experiences with animal cruelty. The post states: “Now, when I see the happy family next door, I want to do something like that Oita family murder case. The closing date is December 31st at 11:59 p.m. I'm thinking about killing it off before the 21st century arrives.” The case he is referring to, the Oita family murder case, bears chilling similarities to the Setagaya family murder case, in which a family is attacked with a knife in their home at night, leaving three dead and three in critical condition. In this case, the perpetrator was found to be a 15-year old boy. This murder came at a time where crimes committed by minors were on the rise, giving way to a deadly trend at the start of the century. The writer of this post refers to this murder fondly, stating that he would “like to do something like that Oita murder case” to the “happy family next door”. What's more chilling, is that the post was made on December 27, 2000, only 2 days before the Setagaya family murder. Now, since the original poster was never identified, there’s no way of knowing whether the family next door he was referring to was the Miyazawa family, and there is no confirming whether he is telling the truth in any of his posts or not, but nonetheless, this theory is one that has has been considered by investigators. Firstly, if the killer was a child, it's unlikely that he would be present in any fingerprint database, making his fingerprints virtually untraceable. This theory also supports the claim some people have made that the last meal the killer ate, string beans and sesame seeds, was something of a home cooked meal, commonly one mothers make for their children, implying that the killer could still be living with his mother. But this theory also completely opposed many other pieces of evidence, such as why the sand from the Edwards military base was in his bag, or how, as a 13 year old boy, he had the strength to scale the back wall and kill this whole family in such a brutal way. Most who are familiar with the case usually dismiss this theory altogether. Regardless of validity, many took these theories and ran with it, and with no suspects and no leads, police were forced to consider every story that came their way. Reaching for any scrap of real information, the police even put out a reward of 20 million yen, almost 190,000 dollars, for any information leading to the arrest of the killer. This is the largest reward ever offered by the Japanese police, and it resulted in a massive investigation that has lasted for years on end. Today, the 92 year old grandmother of the Miyazawa family, Setsuko, is still waiting for answers. She is trapped in grief, as she stands at the entrance of the Chitose Karasuyama station in Setagaya, Tokyo handing out flyers in the hopes that even 24 years later, someone may know something that would bring her son’s murderer to justice. Since the incident, a police officer from the Tokyo PD has been guarding the house 24/7, the path leading to the house is also blocked off. In 2010, after the general public had advocated for it, the statute of limitations for murder and other crimes resulting in death was abolished in Japan, meaning the killer can still be put to jail. But after 24 years, 16,000 pieces of evidence, 15,000 tips, and over 250,000 investigators, the largest investigation in Japanese history still remains unsolved.