Police on Tuesday appealed to the public for help in identifying the suspect in the murder of a 66-year-old woman in her home in Yugawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 2015.
Police have put up posters at JR Yugawawa Station, containing a photo of a suspect taken from surveillance camera footage at the station between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. on April 21, 2015. They also handed out about 1,000 flyers with QR codes to view security camera footage, to people in front of JR Yugawara Station.
On April 21, 2015, a passerby saw flames coming from the window of the 55-square-meter wooden house of Mie Harai at around 6 a.m.
After the fire was extinguished, the body of Harai was found on her bed, with a knife still in the right side of her forehead. In addition to the knife wound, there were more than a dozen stab and cut wounds on her face, and she had been struck with a blunt object.
Hirai lived alone and was confined to a wheelchair. An investigation showed that the fire started in the living room and that glass at the front entrance door had been smashed.
In another development, an elderly man, who lives about 350 meters away from Hirai’s house, was assaulted by a young man who hit him with a steel pipe after he returned home at around 12:10 a.m. on April 21.
The suspect is described as being about 170 cms tall and was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and white face mask. He was also carrying a blue and white striped paper bag and had a black rucksack on his back.
Police said they have questioned about 2,700 people since the murder. Anyone with any information is asked to call Odawara police at 0465-32-0110.
© Japan Today
