A Crime of Opportunity

Jessica (0:00)

Welcome back to The Asian Madness Podcast. Hope everyone's doing well, staying healthy and sane, and living your best lives. Today's episode is another one that I brought back from the sealed Patreon files back in 2021 So yeah, it's been five years since, so I think it's about time I brought it back in, into your years. It's been refreshed though, if you are wondering. So for this episode, we are going to Japan, the world of anime and manga and Pokemon. I think it's inevitable that I circle back to Japan every few episodes, not because they have a disproportionately high rate of crime, but rather, there tends to be more available information. But also, there are so many strange things happening there, it's really hard not to touch on all of them.

So, this is a case where DNA testing proved to be very useful in solving a crime. Technology has come a long way, and all those criminals who committed crimes ages ago probably all thought that they would be able to roam free forever. That is, until DNA testing became a thing. I bet all these killers were at large or secretly dying inside right now. This case took place in the year 2004, and although not that far back compared to those from the 70s or 80s, it's still comforting to know that these older cases are still active and being looked into.

It's terrifying to think that this case or any other case could go on unsolved forever. For this episode, we will be looking into a girl who was targeted in a home invasion. No reason, no rhyme. Her name is Kitaguchi Satomi. Let's begin.

As I just mentioned, her name is Satomi. Back in the year 2004, she was a 17-year-old high schooler. She lived in Hatsukaichi City, in Hiroshima.

She was probably just your average high school girl who hung out with friends, went to school, listened to music, and wasn't to things people her age were into.

She was set to be a diligent student, and was also looking forward to graduating and starting her life as an adult. She lived in a traditional Japanese house with her family, and they all got along very well. Nothing about her really drew any negative attention, but regardless, someone still found a reason to target her. On Tuesday, October 5th, 2004, students were let out earlier, I believe either due to an exam or due to a holiday. So the students all left, and Satomi returned home from school, ate lunch with her grandmother and her younger sister, and then she decided to chill for the rest of the day. As it was a weekday, her parents were both still at work. She went upstairs to her bedroom to lay in bed and listen to music on her headphones. Her grandmother and her younger sister at the time decided to watch TV downstairs. Then, at around 3 p.m., Satomi heard a strange noise.

An unknown male suddenly barged into her room. Understandably, Satomi was scared and shocked all at the same time. The man was holding a knife, and she didn't know what to do. She froze, and the two just stood there for a moment, and then Satomi tried to make a run for it. The man grabbed at her, and the two ended up entangled. It was clear that he was panicking and did not think this plan through, because he had no plan beyond going into her room.

Once he got a hold of her, he began to stab her viciously, telling her to shut up, telling her to stop, and he had to stab her if she kept screaming. This is classic victim blaming. If she had kept quiet and let him do whatever he came to do, he wouldn't have to use the knife, right? Obviously, her fault. Satomi began to scream, and soon after, her very alarmed grandmother and younger sister dashed upstairs to see what the hell was going on. When they pushed the door open, they were all very shocked. Satomi was lying in a pool of her own blood on the floor, and the strange man was standing next to her holding a knife. Before the grandmother could do anything, the unknown man leapt at her and also began to stab her. The younger sister quickly dashed out of the door, down the stairs, before the man could make a move on her. She ran to the neighbors begging for help, and although grandma was stabbed, she managed to get to the phone to call the police before passing out.

Police arrived at the crime scene and found the grandmother unconscious on the floor. She had been stabbed multiple times as well. Police immediately put her in an ambulance and sent her to the hospital, and luckily for her, the wounds were nasty but not fatal. Satomi, on the other hand, was not so lucky. She had been stabbed about ten times in total all over her body. It was a bloody mess. She was pronounced dead at the scene of the crime, her bedroom. The suspect, though, was nowhere to be seen. Upon further investigation, the police did manage to find some clues that would eventually help them in identifying the killer. But that process would take a lot longer than you would think. It's interesting since they had multiple pieces of evidence, and yet after years and thousands of officers working on this case, the perpetrator was only caught due to some coincidence. But we will get to that later.