serialkiller-project-hsp3u1-blog

[serialkiller-project-hsp3u1-blog]

TSUTOMU MIYAZAKI

a.k.a. “The Otaku Murderer” “Little Girl Murderer” “Dracula” “The Rat Man”

serial killer - pedophile - cannibal - necrophile - sadist

sentenced to death - hanged 2008

[serialkiller-project-hsp3u1-blog]

A) Events of Importance

Tsutomu Miyazaki was born premature, which resulted in a deformity that caused him to not have wrist joints and his hands to look rather odd.

As a child, his classmates teased and harassed Miyazaki, which caused him to isolate himself. Even his sisters found his abnormal hands strange. This is when he got into manga comics and often isolated himself to read them.

The manga later lead him to anime and pornography. It was believed this was also because he did not have any close friends and therefore knew nothing about sex in the real world, so he turned to video and pornography.

Miyazaki’s parents did not seem to care about his problems very much and often brushed him off. As a result, he became very close with his grandfather. When his grandfather passed away, Miyazaki ate some of his ashes. It was believed that Miyazaki wanted his grandfather to be reincarnated and that it would not work if any part of his body remained.

His relationship with his family seemed to decline after the death of his grandfather. In an incident where his sister caught him looking at her while she was bathing, he became upset and smashed her head on the side of the bathtub. He also got into an argument with his mother when she suggested he spend less time with his videos. Miyazaki got angry and attacked her.

Tsutomu Miyazaki later also confessed to killing two cats, throwing one in a river and killing another with boiling water, and even his own dog.

Miyazaki would then go on to murder four young girls between the ages of 4 and 7.

[serialkiller-project-hsp3u1-blog]

B) Description of Crime(s) Mari Konno - age 4

August 22nd, 1988

Tsutomu Miyazaki lured Mari Konno into his car while she was on her way to play with a friend. Mari willingly and happily came with Miyazaki to a popular hiking trail, where they went a little ways off the path to sit down. He then strangled the young girl with his bare hands. He immediately undressed and molested the body. He then took the clothes and walked out of the forest, leaving the body there. Miyazaki later returned to the crime scene and removed Mari’s remains. He kept the hands and feet in his closet and attempted to cremate the remaining bones. He sent to remains along with photos of Mari’s clothing to the family and included a note, originally made of magazine clippings, but had been photocopied that said; “Mari. Bones. Cremated. Investigate. Prove.” Miyazaki later sent a letter titled “Crime Confession” where he confessed to the crime under the alias “Yuko Imada”, followed by another letter from the same alias titled “Confession”, where Miyazaki wrote about the physical changes he noticed in Mari’s body post-mortem.

Masami Yoshizawa - age 7

October 3rd, 1988

Miyazaki convinced the young Masami to get into his car once again. He drove her to the same location as the first murder, and strangled her as well. Just like Mari Konno, he undressed the corpse and molested it before leaving the forest with the child’s clothing.

Erika Namba - age 4

December 12th, 1988

Tsutomu Miyazaki lured yet another young girl into his car, but Erika was crying when they arrived. Miyazaki pulled into a parking area and instructed her to undress. He began taking photographs of the girl naked. When she started crying again, he strangled her and dumped her body in the woods by the parking area. Erika’s family received a similar postcard as Mari’s, reading: "Erika. Cold. Cough. Throat. Rest. Death."

Ayako Nomoto - age 5

June 6th, 1988

Miyazaki asked little Ayako to pose for some pictures, and then suggested they take more in the car. Once in the car, Ayako commented on Miyazaki’s deformed hands. He became very angry and strangled her. He took this body home where he molested the corpse and took photos and videos of it. He cooked and ate part of her hands and even drank some of her blood.

Tsutomu Miyazaki was caught while attempting to photograph and abduct a fifth girl.

[serialkiller-project-hsp3u1-blog]

C) Behavioural Characteristics

Tsutomu Miyazaki had a very calm, introverted demeanor and was a good and obedient employee. Though his home life was different, he seemed pretty normal to everyone else. After his grandfather's death, his behaviour changed towards the rest of his family. He smashed his sister’s head on a bathtub and beat up his mother upon her suggesting that he work more and watch videos less.

Miyazaki always disposed of the body to ensure he was not caught and often moved parts due to the paranoia that someone would find them. Each one of his victims were very young girls, this pattern showing that there was potentially a fantasy he was trying to fulfil.

[serialkiller-project-hsp3u1-blog]

D) Psychological Characteristics

Tsutomu Miyazaki experienced a lot of problems and insecurity in his childhood which ultimately affected his mental health and likely played a role in his becoming a serial killer. His deformed hands were a source of insecurity for him as a child, as all his classmates made fun of him for it. He had no friends and spent a lot of time alone, reading manga almost obsessively. This may suggest Antisocial Personality Disorder, as he continued to be quiet and reserved into adulthood even when he began killing young girls. His insecurities grew with time, and he was soon insecure about his genitalia, causing him to revert to pictures, anime and child pornography rather than pursue sexual relationships with women his own age. The child pornography would suggest that the murders were an attempt to help satisfy some form of sexual fantasy.

Miyazaki was not close with his parents and said that they would brush him off when he tried to open up about his problems. He even considered suicide. This suggests a depressive disorder or suicidal thoughts.

During court, Miyazaki often denied that the murders actually happened and said that they instead happened in his dreams. He also said that a “rat-man” told him to commit the crimes and he refused to apologize to any of the victims’ families.

After his arrest, a team of psychologists analysed Miyazaki and confirmed that he had - best case scenario - multiple personalities or - worst case - schizophrenia.

[serialkiller-project-hsp3u1-blog]

E) Organized vs. Disorganized

Tsutomu Miyazaki was an organized serial killer. Miyazaki planned his kills and brought the equipment he needed with him (gloves, camera equipment). While no torture took place before the murder, Miyazaki photographed each of his victims clothed and naked before and sometimes after killing them and molesting their corpses. He was always aware of how the evidence could lead back to him and so he left no fingerprints and even cut the head and feet off of one of the bodies in the attempt to prevent the identification of the body. Miyazaki took trophies in the form of photographs, clothing, one video and even kept the hands and feet of a victim. He also drank the blood of another one victim and partially at the hands. After the murders, Miyazaki sent postcards and notes to the families of the victims. The family of Mari Konno received a box containing the Mari’s ashes and some baby teeth, photographs of her clothing and a note which had originally been from magazine clippings but had been photocopied. The note read: “Mari. Bones. Cremated. Investigate. Prove.” Another one of the victims’ families received a similar note. The families also reported receiving calls from someone who would say nothing. The phone would continuously ring for up to twenty minutes if left unanswered. These calls were presumably from Miyazaki himself.

[serialkiller-project-hsp3u1-blog]

F) Criminal Profiling

Interpersonal Coherence

Tsutomu Miyazaki was bullied due his hand deformity and was isolated and lonely because of it. He was reportedly also insecure about his genitalia and, as a result, avoided pursuing sexual relationships with women his own age and instead would secretly film womens’ crotch areas during sporting events and reverted to porn for his sexual pleasures.

Significance of Time and Place

Miyazaki never kept a victim alive long. He killed them all the same day as their abduction. Victims were all persuaded to get into his car, and two were even murdered in it.

Criminal Characteristics

Tsutomu Miyazaki undressed, photographed, molested and mutilated the bodies of the girls he killed, showing that he did not feel remorse. He killed the same way each time and kept souvenirs like pictures, clothes, videos and body parts. Miyazaki was obsessed with manga, anime, and child porn, which may mean that he was attempting to fulfill a pedophelia fantasy of some sort.

Forensic Awareness

Seemed to have some forensic awareness, his first few notes were made of magazine clippings that were then photocopied so the police could not trace their origin. After his final murder, he mutilated the body, ate some of the flesh, and hid different body parts in seperate locations. Miyazaki even retrieved parts of the body after words after worrying that they were too close to his home and would be discovered. However, the torso of the body was discovered and, though beheaded and without hands or feet, it was identified from chest size and stomach contents. He also put on gloves to strangle his last victim, possibly to remove the possibility of his fingerprints being traced.

Criminal Career

Though he was isolated and lonely as a child, he was never convicted of any crimes. Miyazaki later confessed to killing two cats and strangling his own dog with some wire.

He once at the ashes of his deceased grandfather in order to feel closer to him.

He photographed (both clothed and not), strangled and undressed four young girls (ages 4-7) as well as molesting and sometimes mutilating their corpses, even eating some of the remains and drinking one girl’s blood and attempted to repeat this ordeal with another young girl.

[serialkiller-project-hsp3u1-blog]

G) Capture 

Tsutomu Miyazaki was captured while attempting a fifth abduction and murder. He approached two sisters and managed to lure one away. However, the other sister ran to her father who caught Miyazaki taking pictures of his six-year-old daughter. The police were called and Miyazaki, arrested. Though he was diagnosed with, best case, multiple personalities, worse case, schizophrenia, he was still aware of the seriousness of the crimes he had committed and was sentenced to death. He was hanged June 17th, 2008

[serialkiller-project-hsp3u1-blog]

Bibliography

Tokyo, J. R. (2008, June 17). Nerd cult murderer executed. Retrieved Winter, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/2144503/Nerd-cult-murderer-executed.html

Blanco, J. I. (n.d.). Tsutomu MIYAZAKI. Retrieved Winter, from http://murderpedia.org/male.M/m/miyazaki-tsutomu.htm

Judson, M. (n.d.). 15 Disturbing Facts About Tsutomu Miyazaki, "The Little Girl Murderer". Retrieved Winter, from https://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-japanese-serial-killer-tsutomu-miyazaki/mel-judson