Terrified, she could only repeat “I’ve been stabbed” to the first person she met.
Michiyo was stabbed four times, and treatment took a month.
Police recovered several 26-27 cm shoe marks on satomi’s bedroom floor, allegedly left by the perpetrator when he hurriedly fled, thereby identifying the brand and model of the shoe based on the sole pattern.
Police also found a fingerprint that was not from any family members at the scene, obtaining a DNA sample of the perpetrator from the piece of skin in Satomi’s fingernails.
The most important point is that she and Satomi’s sister both see the killer’s face.
Based on their descriptions, police determined that the man was about 20 years old, short-haired, about 165 centimeters tall, with a strong body, and long small eyes.
Police surveyed the terrain around Satomi’s house, identifying two paths the perpetrator could choose to escape: passing through neighboring neighborhoods on the left and fleeing along the riverbank; or turn right onto the main road.
As long as there are witnesses and determine the direction of the perpetrator’s escape, the police can deduce whether this is a case committed by an acquaintance based on his mastery of the terrain.
However, since it was Tuesday, everyone was busy going to work and school, and there were very few people on the street, so the search for witnesses was not favorable.
Despite holding many clues, the police remained deadlocked.
The perpetrator appears to have disappeared from the locality.
The National Police Agency offered a reward of three million yen to the person who provided clues to help find the perpetrator, and announcement posters were plastered all over the streets.
In the years that followed, they investigated more than 40,000 people.
The victim’s family also made efforts to keep the case from being forgotten by distributing leaflets at the mall, blogging about the murder.
In 2014, a former FBI investigator was invited to assist in the investigation, analyze the perpetrator’s criminal motives, and combine that year’s portraits and the latest scientific and technological methods to paint a portrait of the criminal after 10 years.
However, it wasn’t until 2018, 14 years after Satomi’s murder, that the case took an important turn.
In April 2018, Yamaguchi Prefectural Police received a call from a construction company employee who said he had experienced violence at work and asked the police to come and deal with it.
He said his superior, 35-year-old Manabu Kashima, often hit employees when angry. Everyone was scared but no one dared to report the incident.
And the male worker decided to speak up after being kicked hard by Kashima.
It was a small dispute, after the police arranged it, the two sides accepted mediation.
However, according to the process, the police still have to make a record, take testimony. As he prepared to take his fingerprints, Kashima showed a nervous, uneasy expression that caught the attention of the police.
Kashima’s fingerprints were immediately collated in the database, matching the fingerprints of the suspected murderer satomi 14 years ago.
After that, the DNA collation results are also completely consistent.
Kashima was arrested on April 13 on charges of murder, rape and attempted murder. During the ensuing interrogation, Kashima confessed to the offence.
