Police in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, on Friday appealed to the public for any information that might help apprehend the person or persons who killed a 15-year-old girl in 2008.
Each year (except 2020 and 2021) since the murder of Manami Shimizu, police have handed out about 2,500 flyers at Meitetsu Toyota City Station, as well as six other nearby locations, Kyodo News reported.
Police Chief Kazuaki Naito stated, “We want to solve this case as quickly as possible. We need all the information we can get.”
Shimizu was found dead at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday May 3, 2008, in a rice field in Toyota City, about one kilometer from her home in Ikoma. She was lying on her back, with a small hand towel stuffed into her mouth and a cord around her neck, next to her bicycle. Her school bag was later found on a riverbank some 15 km away.
A family acquaintance found the body after her family, friends and police began searching for Shimizu when she did not return home after going to her high school, attached to Aichi University of Education, the day before.
She attended a practice session of the high school’s soccer team that ended at 6:30 p.m. Friday May 2, and left school by bicycle at around 6:45 p.m. That was the last time she was seen alive.
Police said that in the past 18 years, they have followed up on about 1,400 leads in the case, but with no luck so far.
Police said the only clue they have is that an unaccounted for SUV was seen near the school at the time Shimizu left for home.
There is a 3 million yen reward offered for the arrest of the killer or killers. Anyone with any information is asked to call Toyota police at 0120-400538.
© Japan Today
