On Wednesday, a bereaved family remembered Junko Kobayashi, a student at Tokyo’s Sophia University killed in a high-profile unsolved case 30 years ago. In a flower-laying ceremony at the site of the murder in Tokyo’s Katsushika Ward, the victim’s 80-year-old father, Kenji, and officers from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Kameari police station prayed for her soul. Police officers left the site, where the family’s house used to stand, to hand passersby flyers on the case in front of Keisei Electric Railway’s Shibamata Station.
The incident occurred on the evening of Sept. 9, 1996, at the family’s house, which was set on fire and burned down. The body of Junko, then 21, with her hands and legs tied and her neck and face stabbed, was found in her parents’ bedroom on the second floor. Traces of type A blood of an adult male were found on futon bedding covering the body and a matchbox left near the entrance.
Just before the incident, a man wearing a yellow-brown raincoat and black pants was seen standing with an umbrella at an intersection about 15 meters away from the scene. The MPD has mobilized a total of about 122,500 investigators to look into the case and received more than 1,800 reports from the public, including eyewitness reports. But the case remains unsolved.
On Wednesday, the police department released on its website a 3D image of the suspicious person seen near the scene. Takahiro Hata, chief of the first investigation division covering serious crimes, said that the investigation is still underway, asking for information that has not been reported yet. Those bereaved have endured “a painful 30 years,” said Chief Inspector Akinori Hirata, a member of the division.
He expressed determination to solve the case despite obstacles resulting from the passage of time. However, police are steadily continuing the investigation while setting priorities, he said. Hirata believes that ideas emerging from daily discussions among investigators “contain something leading to a breakthrough.” He added, “We hope to bring good news to the bereaved family by overcoming ’the barrier of time’ through steady efforts.”
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