A promising college student vanishes after her shift at a local ice cream shop. Days later, her dismembered and mutilated body is discovered in the remote mountains of Japan. A crime so gruesome it shook the entire nation. Years passed, leads went cold, and although a suspect was eventually named, the truth behind her murder remains clouded in mystery. This is the chilling unsolved case of [Music] Hiro. It was November 6th, 2009. Deep in the mountains of Hiroshima Prefecture, a place known more for peaceful hikes and mushroom picking than horror stories. But that day, something deeply disturbing surfaced. A man was out in the woods near Mount Kario, a scenic mountain that straddles the border of Hiroshima and Shiman Prefectures. He was just out there for mushrooms. Nothing unusual. But then something strange caught his eye. Amid the fallen leaves, he saw what looked like a human head. At first, he probably thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. But as he got closer, the awful truth set in. It was a severed woman's head just lying there, exposed to the cold autumn air. The police were immediately called, and what followed was a scene that left even seasoned investigators shaken. The rest of the body was eventually found, mutilated in ways that were almost too horrifying to describe. The woman's limbs had been cut off. Her breasts were torn from her chest and inside her organs were gone. The case made headlines across Japan, not just for how brutal it was, but also for how bizarre and seemingly senseless the whole thing seemed. Who could do something like this? And why? The body was later identified through autopsy. The victim was a 19-year-old college student named Hiroa Mako. She had been missing for nearly 2 weeks, last seen in Hamada City over in Shimanet Prefecture. But who was Mako and how did her life come to such a tragic and violent end? Mako was originally from Sakaida City in Kakawa Prefecture. After finishing high school in Takamatsu Commercial High, she pursued higher education at the University of Shimanet. That spring, she moved into a student dorm in Hamada City, far from home, but full of dreams. People who knew her said she was cheerful and bright, though she sometimes worried too much about how others saw her. She loved learning languages, especially English. In fact, after a home stay in the United States, she fell in love with it even more. She dreamed of building a future around that passion. Mako also had a kind heart. She volunteered in an international circle at school, focused on issues like global poverty and hunger. Just a few weeks before her death in late September, she gave a presentation in English at an international peace conference held at her university. Her professors admired her. Her friends adored her. She was that kind of person. Diligent, thoughtful, full of purpose. So, let's go back to the night disappeared. It was October 26, 2009. That evening, Mako had been working a part-time shift at an ice cream shop inside a local shopping center, a place called Yumetown Hamada in Hamada City. Security footage captured her around 9:15 p.m. wearing a black and white striped dress with black leggings. That was the last time everyone ever saw her alive. Her university dorm was about 2.5 km away from that shopping center. The walk wasn't easy. The road was dimly lit and sloped uphill. It would usually take around 30 to 40 minutes on foot. Many students would share a taxi, splitting the fair to save both time and effort. But Baku, she chose to walk. She was trying to save every bit of money she could, hoping to study abroad someday. That's just the kind of person she was. Some of her friends later said she'd been planning to switch jobs from the ice cream shop to an isizakaya, a kind of traditional Japanese snack bar. She was actually supposed to start her new job on the 28th, but her current manager asked her to wait a little longer, at least until a replacement could be found. So, she kept working at the ice cream shop and then she vanished. When her family couldn't get in touch with her, alarm bells started ringing. They called the dormatory and found out she hadn't returned. Something was very wrong. On October 28th, her parents filed a missing person report with the police. A few days later, on November 2nd, police issued a public alert with Maka's photo. An official search was launched, but by then she was already far from where anyone thought she might be. When her severed head was discovered in the forest on November 6th, it sparked one of the largest investigations the region had ever seen. A joint task force between the Hiroshima and Shiman Prefectural Police were formed. And the search expanded rapidly. More body parts started turning up in the forest. Her torso, one of her thighs, her left ankle. Then came something even more disturbing. Bits of human flesh, nail fragments, and bones were found in animal droppings nearby. Wildlife had begun to scavenge remains. A forensic autopsy confirmed it. Mako had been strangled. There were cord marks on her neck and bruises all over her face, suggesting she was badly beaten before she died. But that was only the beginning of the horror. One investigator later said her torso had been found partially burned with limbs severed and both breasts violently cut off. Her internal organs were gone. Her genital area had been so brutally damaged that at first they couldn't even tell the gender of the body. The DNA tests eventually confirmed that it was Mako. And there was one strange detail, a piece of plastic stuck to her bloodstained body. It turned out to be part of a plastic bag used by NT Toko, the kind they used to deliver phone books. Investigators traced the plastic's design and distribution, and discovered it came from a 1995 delivery batch sent to five cities in Hiroshima Prefecture. They believed it might have belonged to the killer. Despite the scale of the investigation, the police hit wall after wall. They received over 30 eyewitness tips, but most were either inconclusive or flatout false. Some people claimed they saw a white Toyota sedan following Mako after she left the shopping center. A taxi driver reported seeing a woman dressed just like Mako being dragged by two men near a restaurant in front of J.R. Hamada station around 9:30 p.m. on October 29th. It was a chilling detail, but again, nothing came of it. On November 30th, a shoe was found along the road about 500 m from the dormatory. Investigators hoped it belonged to Mako, but it couldn't be confirmed. Then in early 2010, the case was formally classified as a special investigation case, and authorities announced a reward up to 3 million yen for any information that could lead to an arrest. That was unusual. Typically, such a bounty is issued only when a case has been cold for at least 6 months, but in this case, they moved quickly, only 3 months after her murder. It showed just how desperate the police were to find answers. By April, over 11,000 flyers had been distributed, urging the public to come forward with anything, any clue, any lead. By 2012, three long years had passed since Meekwa's tragic death, and still no answers. October 26, 2012. The day marked the statute of limitations for the case. Officially, the clock had run out. No new evidence, no suspects, and no justice. In Hamada City, people gathered quietly. A memorial candle was lit in my honor. Her classmates, her professors, university staff, all of them stood in silence, remembering the girl who had once walked those halls full of life and dreams. But even though the statute of limitations had expired, the police weren't giving up. Both the Shimanet and Hiroshima Perfectual Police kept distributing flyers, hoping someone somewhere might still come forward. They had one goal, to catch the person who had done such an unspeakable thing to an innocent young woman. Then in 2016, there was finally a sliver of new information. Police revealed that at some point during the earlier investigation, a woman had come forward. She claimed she saw a car headed toward the mountain, Mount Kario on November 4th, just 2 days before Mako's remains were discovered. But once again, that lead went nowhere. Another dead end. And when cold cases like this drag on too long, people start looking for answers in other places, even supernatural ones. That same year, a strange rumor resurfaced, one that started back in 2009. A TV program had gone to the scene of the crime to film a segment on the case. While recording, a mysterious voice was captured on tape. A voice that according to many sounded eerily like makos. It said it hurt so much. Why only me? People started believing this was Baku's spirit still lingering at the site crying out in pain searching for answers. Others though thought it was just a misunderstanding that the voice actually came from a woman nearby, a bystander who had said something else entirely. Sugoi Hidogata or it was so bad commenting on the awful state of the crime scene. Still, the story spread like wildfire. People wanted to believe that Baku was still trying to tell her story even from beyond the grave. But ghost stories aside, the investigation kept moving forward slowly, steadily. Police eventually released more information. The types of garbage bags and newspapers used to transport Maka's body. The National Police AY's Scientific Research Institute also stepped in to help with profiling the suspect. Based on their findings, they concluded the perpetrator was likely a man in his late 20s to 40s. He probably knew both the Shimanet and Hiroshima regions well. Someone with a strong connection to the land, familiar enough to move around Mount Karu at night without being noticed. Investigators also began to narrow their focus, targeting men with prior sexual offenses. And then finally, a name surfaced. December 20th, 2016, 7 years after Baku's murder, a man was officially identified as the perpetrator. He was charged postumously with murder, corpse mutilation, and abandonment of body. His name was Yoshiharu Yanu. But there was a twist. Yano had already died and not just recently. He died on November 8th, 2009, just 2 days after Mako's body was discovered. So now the big questions were, who was this man? How was he connected to Mako? And how could someone who had already been dead for years be charged with her murder? Yoshi Aruano's life was a complicated one. He was born in 1976, the eldest son of a rice grain store owner in Shimonoseki City, Yamakoi Prefecture. His life wasn't exactly smooth sailing. After finishing high school, he enrolled in a prep school in Kitakushu City, eventually getting into the second division of the Kyushu Institute of Technology. But he didn't stay long. He dropped out after just a year. After that, Yano bounced from one thing to another. He joined a band, played the drums, something he'd always loved. But when people asked him what he did for a living, he'd just say he was a freelancer. No clear job, no clear direction. So, who exactly was Yoshiu Yanu? Back in his student days, people actually used to say he was quite handsome, the kind of guy others envied. But behind that exterior, Yano had his own struggles. He was constantly being compared to his younger brother, a successful hairdresser who started his own business. Yano, on the other hand, never really found solid footing in life. In 2004, everything started to unravel. He was arrested and sentenced to three years and six months in prison for threatening women with knives and committing obscene acts in both Tokyo and Kitagushu, a violent sexual predator. After serving a sentence, he returned to his parents' home in Shimoni City. In 2009, he managed to land a job as a door-to-door salesman at a solar panel company. The work was grueling. Yano even joked about it, calling himself a zombie from all the stress and pressure. But oddly enough, he was considered a hardworking employee. So much so, he was promoted to branch manager and transferred to the Masuda branch in Shimanet Prefecture in June 2009. He lived a quiet life in a two-story company house. But here's where things start to connect and take a darker turn. It was discovered that on the night Baku went missing, October 26th, a surveillance camera near the shopping center where she worked, captured a car driving away. That car was Yanos's. There was no record of Mako and Yano ever meeting before, but clearly that night their paths crossed and it would change everything. Then just days later, as the police launched a public investigation, Yano made a strange visit to his hometown, he told an acquaintance something deeply unsettling, that he had done something terrible and that he was being chased by a gang because of some woman. At that time, people thought maybe he was talking about his previous crimes, but looking back, it sounded a lot like a guilty confession. There was more. A woman who lived near the summit of Mount Karu later testified that on the early morning of November 4th, just before Mako's body was found, she saw a car with its headlights on for several hours from 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. It wasn't a busy road. That car stood out. Oddly, her testimony didn't come out until 5 years later in 2014. Then on the night of November 6th, the same night Maku's remains were officially discovered, Yanu called his boss at the solar panel company, he said he needed to take 2 days off. It was the first time he'd ever asked for leave. The president didn't hesitate. Yano had always been a serious worker. According to others, he told people he was going to visit his father's grave. But as time passed, investigators re-examined everything. And in 2016, they caught something they had initially missed. That plastic phone book bag found with Miyaku's body. It wasn't just distributed in Hiroshima Prefecture. It was also distributed in Yamaguchi Prefecture, where Yano was from. Around the same time, Japan began implementing the N system, an automated vehicle license plate reader that also captures footage of drivers and passengers. Think of it like a smart CCTV system at major roads and intersections. When investigators checked the end system records, they found something suspicious. a vehicle matching Yano's was seen moving through key locations during the time of Baku's disappearance. That's when police went deeper. In the summer of 2016, officers visited Yano's old employer and his family home. On October 28th, they raided the house Yanu had once lived in in Basida City. Although Yano had been dead for years, they were hoping to find anything that might have been left behind. And they did. From someone close to Yano, they seized a USB flash drive. Then on November 22nd, they also got their hands on a digital camera. At first glance, both devices appeared completely wiped. No files, no photos, nothing. But here's what most people don't know. When you delete files, you're not really erasing them. You're just removing the path that allows normal computers to access them. The data, it's still there buried deep in the memory. Forensic experts got to work and what they uncovered was nothing short of horrifying. There were 57 photo files recovered. Among them, graphic images of Mako's mutilated body, a kitchen knife stained with what appeared to be blood, possibly the weapon used in her dismemberment, and a bathroom photo. The curtain in the picture was later confirmed to match the one in Yano's own bathroom in Masuda. That was it. That was the smoking gun. But tragically, there would never be an arrest because Yano was already dead. On the afternoon of November 8th, 2009, just 2 days after my remains were found, news broke of a bizarre car accident on the Chugoku Expressway near the Isa parking area in Mina City, Yamaguchi. Yano's car had crashed into a guardrail three times before bursting into flames. He was found in the driver's seat, burned to death. His mother, who was sitting in the passenger seat, had been thrown from the car and also died from her injuries. Both bodies were completely burned. Now, about Yano's death, there's still a lot of debate about what really happened that day. You see, when investigators look closer at the scene of the crash, they noticed something strange. There were no break marks, no signs that Yano had even tried to stop the car. That led many to believe this wasn't just an accident. Some started to think it was a self-inflicted death, a final attempt to escape the consequences of what he had done. People speculated that after visiting his father's grave and quietly putting his hands together in prayer, Yanu made a decision to end everything and take his mother with him. A tragic double death to avoid being caught. At the time, no one had connected Yanu's death to Maka's murder. Everyone thought his request for a day off was simply so he could pay respects at the family grave. But when investigators retraced his movements from early November, a pattern emerged. Yanu had been suspiciously traveling back and forth between his hometown and his workplace. It almost looked like he was planning something. Some found it odd that his mother was even in the car that day. It didn't seem like a casual trip to visit family or a grave site. Something felt off, almost staged. Yet, despite all the suspicion, no note was ever found. So, officially, the police ruled it an accidental death. That area of the highway between Vina City interchange and the Issa parking area is known to be dangerous. In fact, in 2013, a well-known TV personality, Yakun Sakuruka, also died in a car crash along the same stretch of road. So, maybe it was just a tragic accident. Or maybe it wasn't. Eventually, on December 20th, 2016, the Shiman and Hiroshima police submitted their final documents to the prosecutor's office, confirming Yano as the suspect. But because Yano was already dead, the case was closed without prosecution. On January 21st, 2017, the charges were officially dismissed. After seven long years, the case had finally reached its end. But to many, it still didn't feel like justice. It felt like it came too late. People started calling it a case where the police were always one step behind the perpetrator. If the body parts have been dumped differently, bit by bit in scattered places, the case might have been completely unsolvable. It was almost a perfect crime. Almost. Interestingly, the aftermath of the case also changed things locally. In Basta City, where Yano had lived, a naming system was introduced for trash disposal, especially for combustible garbage. Now, if anyone tried to throw out anything suspicious, it could be traced back to them. A silent but powerful reminder of what had happened. And some believe the media attention itself pressured the killer, pushing him to dump the body all at once out of fear of getting caught. That panic may have been what led to his downfall. But even with the case officially closed, not everyone was convinced. Online forums buzzed with conspiracy theories. Some internet users questioned everything, especially Yanu's motive. The police never explained why he would kill Byaku. There was no record of any personal connection, no known trigger. It all felt vague. Some skeptics even suggested Yano was just a scapegoat, that the USB and camera evidence might have been planted. Others went even further, proposing a dark theory that Bako was the victim of a snuff film. Now, snuff films, if you've heard the term, refer to recordings of real life abuse and murder, sold underground as twisted entertainment. There are rumors, always rumors, that such films are backed by people in positions of power. And some believed that the state of Mako's body, the graphic nature of the crime, and the mysterious photo files pointed to something far darker than a lone killer. One forum post even claimed the digital camera contained a video of the entire murder. Though, let's be clear, that was never confirmed. It was never reported in any official article, just a theory. Still, it lingered in the background. In the end, the case was closed thanks to years of police work and media pressure. But the questions, the why, the how, and the lingering whatifs still remain. Why did it take so long to connect the dots? Could the killer have been caught earlier if Yano's criminal history had been checked sooner? Was there really something more sinister behind it all? And most of all, what did Maka do to deserve such a fate? Maybe it really was Yanul all along, a man with a dark past who simply snapped. Or maybe we will never know the full truth. So, what do you think? Was justice truly served in this case, or is there more to the story than we've been told? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. And that is all for today. Thanks for watching. [Music]