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The Sasebo Slashing - Nevada-tan · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: On June first, two thousand and four, a twelve year
0:10
Speaker 1: old Japanese schoolgirl named Setomi Mitarai followed one of her
0:14
Speaker 1: classmates out of the classroom during lunch break, but she
0:18
Speaker 1: never came back. Then, minutes later, teachers at that elementary
0:22
Speaker 1: school would find the same classmate casually walking back into
0:26
Speaker 1: the room covered in blood. It seemed that s Tomi's
0:30
Speaker 1: killer was not a stranger, a predator, or even a teenager.
0:34
Speaker 1: It was to Tomy's eleven year old friend. It was
0:37
Speaker 1: a crime that would shock Japan and spark one of
0:39
Speaker 1: the most disturbing juvenile murder investigations in the country's history,
0:45
Speaker 1: and along the way, he would also create an Internet legend.
0:51
Speaker 1: This is the story of the Sassebo slashing. My name's Ben,
0:56
Speaker 1: I'm Nicole.
0:57
Speaker 2: And you're listening to wick Ingram, a true crime podcast.
1:02
Speaker 2: The following.
1:06
Speaker 1: Material listener.
1:30
Speaker 2: After the intro, we always stop, and I at times
1:34
Speaker 2: yelled at Ben, and next time I yelled at Ben, well, yeah, you're.
1:38
Speaker 1: Like, where did you find this? And I was just like, internet, Yeah,
1:42
Speaker 1: the Internet's actually a really good place to find a
1:44
Speaker 1: lot of things on the Internet. For example, you can
1:46
Speaker 1: find our Patreon and you can signed up, just like
1:49
Speaker 1: Emily Pierce, Echo Day, SHAWNA. Smith, Kayla Crocker, and Nancy Jackson.
1:54
Speaker 1: They all went on the interwebs. They found our Patreon
1:57
Speaker 1: and they signed up and they're supporting us. So shout
1:59
Speaker 1: out to them because they're amazing they are. Did you
2:01
Speaker 1: see that segwa happening?
2:02
Speaker 2: No, because it was quite quick.
2:03
Speaker 1: That's what I was planning on, Like boom, Well that's
2:06
Speaker 1: what I thought. I'm like, I always like try and
2:07
Speaker 1: work it in smoothly. But if I just in your face, yeah,
2:10
Speaker 1: I won't see it.
2:11
Speaker 2: I bet you caught most people off guard with.
2:13
Speaker 1: That one though, I bet I did. But anyways, back
2:15
Speaker 1: on topic, I did find this one doing some perusing
2:19
Speaker 1: on the old innerwebs, and it is a story and
2:21
Speaker 1: a half. And I will tell you it's a bit
2:24
Speaker 1: different than what we typically cover. I mean, there's usually
2:27
Speaker 1: murder investigations and all this sort of stuff. Right with this,
2:30
Speaker 1: there's not a whole lot of an investigation going on.
2:32
Speaker 1: It's more of looking into the history of why this occurred,
2:36
Speaker 1: So a bit more psychology involved in this story.
2:38
Speaker 2: Okay, that's you know, well freaking sounds interesting to me.
2:41
Speaker 2: That's not sure, but also like, whoa, it's wild.
2:45
Speaker 1: It is very wild. Yeah, do you want to just
2:47
Speaker 1: dive in? I think so okay. On June first, in
2:51
Speaker 1: two thousand and four, the city of Sasebo in Japan's
2:54
Speaker 1: Nagasaki Prefecture woke up to what appeared to be an
2:57
Speaker 1: ordinary Tuesday. Located on the northwestern coast of Kyushu, Sasebo
3:03
Speaker 1: was known as a relatively quiet city, home to a
3:06
Speaker 1: major naval base and a population of roughly two hundred
3:09
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand people. While Japan had experienced several highly
3:13
Speaker 1: publicized juvenile crimes during the previous decade, violent crimes remained
3:18
Speaker 1: rare by international standards, and few residents would have imagined
3:22
Speaker 1: that their city was about to become the focus of
3:25
Speaker 1: national and international headlines. That morning, students across Sasebo made
3:31
Speaker 1: their way to school, just as they did every other day.
3:34
Speaker 1: Parents said goodbye to their children before heading off to work.
3:38
Speaker 1: Teachers prepared their lessons, and classrooms gradually filled with students,
3:42
Speaker 1: settling into the routines of another school day. At Okabu
3:45
Speaker 1: Elementary School, a public school located in the Higashi Okobocho
3:49
Speaker 1: area of the city, six grade students were entering what
3:53
Speaker 1: would be one of their final months before graduating to
3:56
Speaker 1: junior high school, and among those students was twelve year
4:00
Speaker 1: old Stomi Mitre. Now Satomi was simply another elementary student
4:05
Speaker 1: navigating their final year of childhood. She lived with her
4:09
Speaker 1: father at Kiyogi Miterre and her siblings in Sasobo. Her
4:13
Speaker 1: father worked as a bureau chief in the Minanchi Shimbun's
4:16
Speaker 1: local Sasabo office. He was a respected individual and a
4:20
Speaker 1: respected position in one of Japan's largest newspaper organizations. Several
4:25
Speaker 1: years ago, though, the family went through a tough time
4:28
Speaker 1: as to Tomi's mother actually passed away from cancer, and
4:31
Speaker 1: since then Kyogi had been raising his children alone while
4:34
Speaker 1: balancing the demands of his career along its side. Friends
4:37
Speaker 1: and family later described Satomi as a normal girl with
4:40
Speaker 1: a typical school life. She attended class, spent time with
4:44
Speaker 1: her friends, and participated in school activities. Now, nothing in
4:48
Speaker 1: the days leading up to June first suggested that she
4:51
Speaker 1: was in any sort of danger, and according to her father,
4:54
Speaker 1: she had never spoken about any serious conflicts with classmates.
4:58
Speaker 1: She appeared to get along well with everyone around her.
5:02
Speaker 1: Now sharing the same school and the same grade level
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Speaker 1: was another student. Unlike Satomi, we would never actually have
5:10
Speaker 1: this individual identified to the public see Japanese law prohibits
5:14
Speaker 1: the publication of names of juvenile offenders, particularly in serious
5:19
Speaker 1: criminal cases involving children, and as a result, police, prosecutors
5:24
Speaker 1: and the media would simply refer to the girl only
5:27
Speaker 1: as girl A. So that's what we'll be calling her.
5:31
Speaker 1: At the time, however, she was simply another sixth grade
5:34
Speaker 1: student at Okubu Elementary School. She and Potomy were not strangers.
5:39
Speaker 1: In fact, the two girls knew each other well. They
5:42
Speaker 1: shared classes, participated in some activities together, and according to
5:46
Speaker 1: later reports, had developed a friendship through school and mutual interests.
5:50
Speaker 1: Like many children their age, in early two thousands, both
5:53
Speaker 1: girls had also become interested in the growing world on
5:58
Speaker 1: the internet. Home computers and internet message boards had become
6:02
Speaker 1: increasingly common in Japan, and children were beginning to spend
6:06
Speaker 1: more time communicating with friends online after school. Now, none
6:11
Speaker 1: of this seemed unusual, so for teachers, classmates, and parents,
6:15
Speaker 1: June first began like countless days before it. Lessons were
6:20
Speaker 1: taught throughout the morning, Students moved through one classroom and
6:23
Speaker 1: onto the next, and activities, and everything just continued normally.
6:28
Speaker 1: As the morning progressed, students began looking forward to their
6:31
Speaker 1: lunch break. Now, in Japanese elementary school, lunch is often
6:34
Speaker 1: eaten in the classroom, giving students an opportunity to socialize
6:38
Speaker 1: and relax before returning to their afternoon lessons. For the
6:42
Speaker 1: children at Okubu Elementary School, lunch was supposed to be
6:45
Speaker 1: just another part of the day. It was supposed to
6:48
Speaker 1: be ordinary. So Tomy and Girl A had been attending
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Speaker 1: class alongside one another throughout the morning. So far, classmates
6:57
Speaker 1: didn't report witnessing any sort of confrontation that morning, ignor
7:00
Speaker 1: did teachers notice anything serious enough to draw any sort
7:03
Speaker 1: of concern. Now, shortly before lunch occurred, however, something changed.
7:08
Speaker 1: As students began preparing for their lunch break, girl A
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Speaker 1: approached to Tony she asked her to come with her.
7:16
Speaker 1: The request wasn't exactly unusual. The girls knew each other
7:20
Speaker 1: very well, and there was nothing suspicious about a classmate
7:23
Speaker 1: asking another classmate to step out of the room for
7:25
Speaker 1: a few minutes. So no teacher intervened and no student
7:28
Speaker 1: questioned it. The two girls left together and headed towards
7:33
Speaker 1: a study room on the third floor of the school. Now,
7:37
Speaker 1: what happened next would later be reconstructed through the statements
7:40
Speaker 1: provided to investigators by girl A. According to those accounts,
7:45
Speaker 1: girl A had specifically chosen the room because it was empty.
7:50
Speaker 1: Once the girls walked down the hallway, passed through the door,
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Speaker 1: and were inside, she reportedly closed the curtains, reducing visibility
7:58
Speaker 1: into the room and created a sense of privacy. Now,
8:02
Speaker 1: this was not a random location that was selected in
8:05
Speaker 1: the heat of the moment. It was a place where
8:07
Speaker 1: the two girls could be alone. Specifically, girl A later
8:11
Speaker 1: stated that she instructed se Tomi to sit down in
8:14
Speaker 1: a chair, then she attempted to cover se Tomi's eyes,
8:18
Speaker 1: and one version of the events suggested she initially tried
8:22
Speaker 1: to use a towel as a blindfold, before abandoning the
8:25
Speaker 1: idea when set Tomi resisted, but another report says that
8:28
Speaker 1: she simply tried to cover s Tomi's eyes with her hands.
8:31
Speaker 1: But whatever exactly occurred in those moments, investigators became convinced
8:35
Speaker 1: that girl A had carefully positioned herself to carry out
8:40
Speaker 1: what she already decided to do. As they were alone
8:44
Speaker 1: in the room with Setomi sitting in the chair, girl
8:48
Speaker 1: A armed herself with a box cutter, and then she attacked.
8:54
Speaker 1: The weapon itself was not particularly large, but box cutters,
8:57
Speaker 1: I mean, they're common. They're tools used for cutting paper, cardboard,
9:01
Speaker 1: and packing materials. Yet in the confined space of that
9:04
Speaker 1: study room, its razor sharp blade became a deadly weapon.
9:10
Speaker 1: As she swung, the blade struck Stomy's arms and neck,
9:14
Speaker 1: slashing deep wounds into her flesh, including a devastating injury
9:18
Speaker 1: to her throat, causing rapid and catastrophic blood loss. While
9:24
Speaker 1: the attack was unfolding inside the third floor room, life
9:28
Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the school continued uninterrupted. Students were
9:31
Speaker 1: eating their lunch, talking with friends, and preparing for the
9:34
Speaker 1: afternoon's class. Teachers supervised the classrooms, completely unaware that a
9:39
Speaker 1: sixth grade student had suffered life threatening injuries only a
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Speaker 1: short distance away. And when Girl A returned from the
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Speaker 1: third floor study room, her appearance immediately attracted attention as
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Speaker 1: her hands and clothes were saturated in crimson red blood.
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Speaker 2: Oh my word, earth is happening here?
10:02
Speaker 1: Yeah? It is something straight out of a fucking horror film.
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Speaker 2: Like why also, I find for some reason, I find
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Speaker 2: like box cutters to be like so intimidating and kind
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Speaker 2: of like dangerous because.
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Speaker 1: They're quite sharp, right, They're very sharp, and they're very
10:17
Speaker 1: it's a very hard steel on the blade. Yeah, I
10:20
Speaker 1: mean it's very brittle, mind you, but it's that allows
10:23
Speaker 1: the blade to be thinner, so they cut easier. They're sharp,
10:28
Speaker 1: they're thin, and they cut deep.
10:30
Speaker 2: They're they're really easy to hold their like discrete.
10:34
Speaker 1: I don't know, and no one's questioning if you have
10:36
Speaker 1: a box cutter, because it's so common, it's like.
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Speaker 2: A pretty intimidating weapon in my opinion.
10:40
Speaker 1: Well, tell me this. If you're at work, and I
10:42
Speaker 1: don't care the workplace, whether it's an office, whether I
10:46
Speaker 1: don't know, a storefront, and who knows, whatever the case,
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Speaker 1: if you are sitting there and a coworker of yours
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Speaker 1: walks into the room with a box cutter, are you concerned?
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Speaker 2: No?
11:00
Speaker 1: But if you're say, in an office or whatever, and
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Speaker 1: your coworker walks in with a butcher knife, are you concerned?
11:06
Speaker 1: Ward that knife? What are you doing? Box Cutters are
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Speaker 1: so common they do not draw attention almost no matter
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Speaker 1: the scenario you're in.
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Speaker 2: Unless you're a paranoid person like me, and I'd be like,
11:16
Speaker 2: the fuck you're doing.
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Speaker 1: With that, touche, don't.
11:19
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, they're just trying to put down some cardboard.
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Speaker 1: They're collapsing some stuff. But what's really interesting about this scenario, though,
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Speaker 1: is when girl A returned to the classroom, she just
11:32
Speaker 1: waltzed in just casually, almost like nothing had happened.
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Speaker 2: Even though she is covered in blood.
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Speaker 1: Even though she is covered in blood, probably, honestly, I
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Speaker 1: bet you, she is probably even dripping in blood. Like
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Speaker 1: the fact of how she cut Stomi's throat and then
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Speaker 1: just walked back to the classroom, I would imagine that
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Speaker 1: she is actually dripping in blood.
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Speaker 2: That's so ridiculously sad. But it almost seems like she
12:00
Speaker 2: was having like some sort of utter body experience, like
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Speaker 2: she wasn't even there or something. But I'm sure we'll
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Speaker 2: find out.
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Speaker 1: Well, I did mention there's a lot of psychology involved
12:08
Speaker 1: in this case. Yeah, we'll break some of that stuff
12:11
Speaker 1: down now. At first, when when everyone in the classroom
12:14
Speaker 1: saw this, some assumed that she must have injured herself somehow,
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Speaker 1: And I mean, like in an elementary school, that's your
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Speaker 1: most logical explanation Immediately, Children's scrape knees, suffer cuts, fall
12:26
Speaker 1: have accidents like no one's mind immediately jumps to that
12:29
Speaker 1: this child just murdered someone, but the sheer amount of
12:32
Speaker 1: blood was impossible to ignore. Teachers quickly approached the girl
12:36
Speaker 1: to determine what had happened, and what they heard next
12:39
Speaker 1: only deepened the confusion. Now there are another few varying
12:43
Speaker 1: accounts on this, but apparently girl A either admitted right
12:47
Speaker 1: then and there that she'd done something terrible or informed
12:50
Speaker 1: those around her that the blood wasn't hers. Either way,
12:53
Speaker 1: she's still admitting something. But one account quoted her saying, quote,
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Speaker 1: this is not my blood, and another reported she confessed
13:00
Speaker 1: that she'd done something bad. And I think this is
13:03
Speaker 1: probably due to being lost in translation along the way
13:06
Speaker 1: from Japanese to English. Why those accounts are so close
13:10
Speaker 1: but varying a bit.
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Speaker 2: But she, at least by the sounds of it, notified
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Speaker 2: them right away that it wasn't She wasn't injured.
13:16
Speaker 1: Herself, correct that this was something else that was going on. Now,
13:21
Speaker 1: whatever her exact words are, it's not exactly clear, but
13:24
Speaker 1: the message was the same. It was, and it was
13:27
Speaker 1: very much so, enough to alarm the adults that were
13:29
Speaker 1: around like what do you mean? Uh huh, And then
13:33
Speaker 1: at nearly the same time, the teachers looking at girl
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Speaker 1: A realized that Satomi had not returned with her because
13:41
Speaker 1: they had left together, only one of them came back.
13:46
Speaker 1: Staff members and teachers immediately began searching the school for Satomi.
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Speaker 1: That search led them to the study room on the
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Speaker 1: third floor, and when school staff entered the room, they
13:57
Speaker 1: found twelve year old Stomi Mitteree lying on the floor.
14:01
Speaker 1: She was motionless and face down, and there was an
14:05
Speaker 1: enormous amount of blood throughout the room. Emergency services were
14:10
Speaker 1: contacted immediately. Paramedics and firefighters rushed to the elementary school
14:14
Speaker 1: while teachers attempted to process what they just discovered. Among
14:19
Speaker 1: those who responded was Kazioshi Tomanaga of the Sassobo Central
14:23
Speaker 1: Fire Department. Later describing what he found, Tomanaga said Stomi
14:28
Speaker 1: was unconscious and had already stopped breathing when he approached her.
14:32
Speaker 1: Her heart, in fact, was no longer beating, and the
14:35
Speaker 1: injuries on her neck had caused massive blood loss, making
14:38
Speaker 1: the situation absolutely critical. Emergency responders worked fast to try
14:43
Speaker 1: and save her, but at this point, well even if
14:47
Speaker 1: they were there earlier there was little that they could do.
14:49
Speaker 1: The wounds were simply too severe, and Stomi was pronounced
14:53
Speaker 1: dead shortly thereafter.
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Speaker 2: Gosh, that is just frickin' devastating.
15:00
Speaker 1: It's heart wrenching. Yeah, this is supposed to be a
15:03
Speaker 1: place where children are safe out of school and you
15:06
Speaker 1: don't expect anything like this. It's a place of literal innocence. Yeah,
15:10
Speaker 1: and then that innocence created this.
15:13
Speaker 2: Like, my eyes are feel watery if I think about
15:16
Speaker 2: this too hard. It's just who hits too much.
15:19
Speaker 1: For investigators arriving at the school, the scene presented a
15:22
Speaker 1: very grim picture. The study room contained clear evidence of
15:26
Speaker 1: a very violent attack. Blood was found where Stomi had collapsed,
15:30
Speaker 1: and the injuries to her body immediately indicated that a
15:33
Speaker 1: sharp edged weapon had been used. The fatal wound was
15:36
Speaker 1: located on her neck, while additional slash wounds were found
15:39
Speaker 1: present on her arms. But thankfully, the police did not
15:42
Speaker 1: have to spend long searching for a suspect, as the
15:45
Speaker 1: person responsible was still inside the school and she'd already
15:48
Speaker 1: admitted to what she had done. While officers began securing
15:52
Speaker 1: the scene and interviewing witnesses, word of the tragedy was
15:56
Speaker 1: spreading beyond the school grounds like wildfire. Began arriving after
16:01
Speaker 1: hearing reports that an emergency had occurred, rumors circulated rapidly
16:05
Speaker 1: through the community, although people yet had not understood the
16:08
Speaker 1: full scale of what had happened. One of them people
16:12
Speaker 1: rushing towards the school, though, was Setomi's father, Kyogi Miterree.
16:16
Speaker 1: At first, he had only been informed that his daughter
16:18
Speaker 1: had been hurt, and like any parent receiving such a call,
16:21
Speaker 1: the immediate response was head to the school and hope
16:26
Speaker 1: that whatever happened wasn't too serious. But the reality of
16:29
Speaker 1: what was waiting for him was, of course, far worse.
16:32
Speaker 1: By the time he arrived, Satomi had already been slipping
16:36
Speaker 1: from paramedics help. Years later, many people would remember the
16:39
Speaker 1: shocking details of the crime itself, but some of the
16:42
Speaker 1: most heartbreaking words associated with the case came from Kyogi himself,
16:46
Speaker 1: right in the hours after his daughter's death. Quote. When
16:51
Speaker 1: I arrived, Setomi was already lying there, collapsed. I couldn't
16:55
Speaker 1: believe what I was seeing. His daughter had gone to
16:59
Speaker 1: school that morning, like she had countless times before. She'd
17:03
Speaker 1: attended classes, spent time with her friends, and was supposed
17:06
Speaker 1: to come home that afternoon, but instead, now she was gone.
17:11
Speaker 1: She was dead now. Normally, the first hours of a
17:14
Speaker 1: murder investigation are dominated by a lot of uncertainty. Detectives
17:18
Speaker 1: must identify suspects, establish timelines, locate witnesses, determine whether the
17:23
Speaker 1: offender is still at large. But here many of those
17:25
Speaker 1: questions had already been answered before police even finished securing
17:28
Speaker 1: the scene. The suspect, known publicly only as Girl A,
17:33
Speaker 1: was taken into custody and transported for questioning, and because
17:37
Speaker 1: she was only eleven years old, investigators faced a very
17:40
Speaker 1: unusual challenge. They were not questioning an adult offender, someone
17:44
Speaker 1: with years of life experience. They were speaking to a
17:47
Speaker 1: sixth grade student who'd been attending classes only hours earlier.
17:53
Speaker 1: As questioning began, Girl A was described as saying quote,
17:58
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, over and over again while investigators
18:04
Speaker 1: attempted to understand what had taken place in the school.
18:08
Speaker 1: Those early interviews created a very complicated picture of the
18:11
Speaker 1: young suspect. On one hand, she took a box cutter
18:14
Speaker 1: she brought to school and slashed her classmate's throat with it. Then,
18:19
Speaker 1: on the other hand, the girl sitting in front of
18:22
Speaker 1: them appeared frightened, emotional, and very overwhelmed by the reality
18:26
Speaker 1: of what was happening. Reports from the time stated that
18:30
Speaker 1: she spent much of the night crying while in custody.
18:33
Speaker 1: Some accounts also noted that she initially refused food and
18:36
Speaker 1: showed very little interest in eating after the arrest. For detectives, however,
18:41
Speaker 1: the confusion only solved part of the case. They now
18:45
Speaker 1: knew who had committed the murder and how it had happened,
18:48
Speaker 1: but they still did not understand why. This was clearly
18:52
Speaker 1: not a random attack carried out by some stranger. They
18:55
Speaker 1: knew that, nor did it appear to be the result
18:57
Speaker 1: of a confrontation that had erupted, you know, moments before
19:01
Speaker 1: the violence. The circumstances suggested a very deep conflict, one
19:05
Speaker 1: that somehow developed between the two girls who had once
19:08
Speaker 1: been friends. As police continued their interviews, they began receiving
19:13
Speaker 1: the first indication that the answer might be found in
19:16
Speaker 1: the girl's relationship. Classmates, teachers, family members were all questioned
19:21
Speaker 1: in an effort to understand what had happened in the
19:24
Speaker 1: weeks leading up to that fateful day. As news of
19:27
Speaker 1: the murder continued to spread rapidly, across Japan. Throughout the
19:31
Speaker 1: afternoon and evening, television broadcasts interrupted regular programming with updates
19:36
Speaker 1: from the school, while newspapers rushed to assemble special coverage
19:39
Speaker 1: for the following morning's edition. And the basic facts alone
19:43
Speaker 1: were enough to shock the public. Even in a country
19:46
Speaker 1: that had experienced several highly publicized juvenile crimes during the
19:50
Speaker 1: previous decade, the circumstances of this one felt almost impossible
19:54
Speaker 1: to comprehend, as journalists searched for answers and commentators debated
19:59
Speaker 1: how such a crime could occur. Investigators continued working throughout
20:02
Speaker 1: the details, and somewhere within the relationship between Setomi and
20:06
Speaker 1: girl A, they believe was the explanation they were looking for.
20:10
Speaker 1: The challenge was just finding it. But the breakthrough would
20:15
Speaker 1: not come from the crime scene itself. It would come
20:18
Speaker 1: from a place that in two thousand and four, many
20:19
Speaker 1: parents and teachers did not fully understand, and that was
20:23
Speaker 1: the Internet. By two thousand and four, internet use among
20:27
Speaker 1: Japanese children had become increasingly common. Personal websites, online journals, forums,
20:33
Speaker 1: and message boards allowed students to communicate with one another
20:36
Speaker 1: long after the school day had ended. For many adults, however,
20:39
Speaker 1: this world remained largely invisible. Parents and teachers often knew
20:43
Speaker 1: their children were using the Internet, but had little understanding
20:47
Speaker 1: of what was actually taking place there. As police reviewed
20:50
Speaker 1: the online interactions between Setomi and Girl A, they began
20:54
Speaker 1: uncovering evidence of a deteriorating friendship. It was uncovered during
20:59
Speaker 1: the investigation that tensions between the two girls had intensified
21:03
Speaker 1: during the final days of May two thousand and four.
21:06
Speaker 1: Several sources indicated that Girl A had become upset after
21:09
Speaker 1: discovering comments on May twenty seventh, just five days before
21:13
Speaker 1: the murder took place. They had allegedly been posted about
21:16
Speaker 1: her online. Investigators were repeatedly told that someone made the
21:21
Speaker 1: remarks focused on her appearance and claimed that she had
21:24
Speaker 1: been called a goodie goodie and instead of you know,
21:28
Speaker 1: hurt fading away a few hours later, or resentments, you know,
21:31
Speaker 1: disappearing after a day, it all instead appeared to have grown.
21:36
Speaker 1: The situation escalated further the following day too. On the
21:40
Speaker 1: evening of May twenty eighth, additional comments about Girl A
21:43
Speaker 1: appeared online, but they were removed shortly after being posted. However,
21:47
Speaker 1: investigators were told that girl A saw them before they disappeared.
21:51
Speaker 1: And by that point, the anger she felt towards Setomi
21:54
Speaker 1: had reportedly intensified. As detectives continued reconstructing the days leading
21:59
Speaker 1: up to them, or they encountered evidence suggesting that girl
22:02
Speaker 1: A was no longer simply upset, and she may have
22:06
Speaker 1: already begun thinking about violence. She even later admitted to
22:10
Speaker 1: considering ways to kill Stomi during this period dang. According
22:15
Speaker 1: to those accounts, she thought about different methods and different
22:19
Speaker 1: weapons before ultimately settling on a box cutter. Apparently, she
22:24
Speaker 1: had recently watched a television drama in which a character
22:26
Speaker 1: was attacked with a similar tool, and she allegedly told
22:30
Speaker 1: investigators directly quote, I saw that drama. I thought I'd
22:34
Speaker 1: do it that.
22:34
Speaker 2: Way, okay, because I was like, where does she even
22:37
Speaker 2: get this idea from TV? Which, yeah, I guess so frick.
22:44
Speaker 1: So it seems as though the friendship between the two
22:46
Speaker 1: girls had broken down, her feelings had turned into resentment,
22:50
Speaker 1: and resentment had turned into anger, and according to the
22:53
Speaker 1: statements girl A would later give police, that anger had
22:56
Speaker 1: grown steadily over several days, and by the end of May,
23:01
Speaker 1: investigators believed that she had already made the decision. The
23:04
Speaker 1: only thing left was to carry it out now. As
23:08
Speaker 1: they dug deeper into girl A's background, detectives uncovered more
23:11
Speaker 1: details that stood out to them. Like many students in
23:14
Speaker 1: Japan's highly competitive education system, girl A was reportedly under
23:19
Speaker 1: pressure to perform academically. It seemed that concern about her
23:23
Speaker 1: grades had led her parents to push her towards focusing
23:25
Speaker 1: more heavily on her school work, and it also seemed
23:29
Speaker 1: like she had recently stepped away from some activity she
23:31
Speaker 1: once enjoyed, including basketball. At the same time, she was
23:35
Speaker 1: becoming more interested in the Internet itself and had become
23:39
Speaker 1: increasingly interested in horror themed media and violent fiction. Among
23:44
Speaker 1: the works frequently mentioned was Battle Royale, the controversial novel
23:48
Speaker 1: and film that depicted students being forced to kill one another.
23:53
Speaker 1: Other reports referenced her interest in internet horror stories, urban legends,
23:57
Speaker 1: and the infamous Red Room animation that circulated online during
24:00
Speaker 1: the early two thousands, which was based on Japanese urban legend,
24:04
Speaker 1: and these discoveries quickly became the focus of the media. Newspapers,
24:09
Speaker 1: TV programs, and commentators began debating whether violent entertainment or
24:13
Speaker 1: internet culture had influenced the crime. Some argued that exposure
24:17
Speaker 1: to such material could have desensitized a child to violence. However,
24:22
Speaker 1: others strongly disagreed. They pointed out that millions of people
24:25
Speaker 1: consumed that same book or films and website urban legend stories,
24:30
Speaker 1: all without committing any sort of violent acts. Investigators themselves
24:34
Speaker 1: appeared more cautious than any on this topic, though while
24:37
Speaker 1: they documented these interests and considered their potential significance, the
24:40
Speaker 1: evidence they were gathering continued to point back towards the
24:44
Speaker 1: relationship between the two of them and the online activity.
24:48
Speaker 1: Police also examined reports of previous behavioral issues involving girl
24:52
Speaker 1: at Some accounts show that she had experienced conflicts with
24:56
Speaker 1: classmates before the murder. Others claimed that there had been
24:59
Speaker 1: an earlier incident involving a box cutter, roughly one month
25:03
Speaker 1: before Stomy's death, but not every report could be independently verified.
25:08
Speaker 1: In allegations contributed to a growing effort to understand whether
25:12
Speaker 1: there were any warning signs that existed before this took place. Still,
25:16
Speaker 1: as investigators progressed, detectives found no evidence that they were
25:20
Speaker 1: dealing with a child who's obviously disconnected from reality. Teachers, classmates,
25:27
Speaker 1: professionals who later evaluated her frequently described the girl who
25:32
Speaker 1: was quite normal. Girl A wasn't anything out of what
25:35
Speaker 1: you would expect, which only made the case more difficult
25:38
Speaker 1: to understand. So how could a normal eleven year old
25:41
Speaker 1: child commit a murder with such violence? In the following weeks,
25:47
Speaker 1: girl A underwent extensive psychological evaluations as well as behavioral assessments.
25:53
Speaker 1: Specialists interviewed her, They reviewed her history, examined her relationships,
25:57
Speaker 1: and attempted to determine whether a mental illness or psychological
26:00
Speaker 1: disorder had played a significant role in the killing, and
26:04
Speaker 1: the findings surprised a lot of people. Despite the brutality
26:08
Speaker 1: of the crime, investigators did not conclude that Girl A
26:12
Speaker 1: was suffering from a severe mental illness that prevented her
26:15
Speaker 1: from understanding her actions. Reports from the case repeatedly indicate
26:20
Speaker 1: that specialists belief she understood the difference between right and wrong.
26:24
Speaker 1: She wasn't dealing with psychosis or any hallucinations or profound
26:27
Speaker 1: mental instability. Instead, it seemed that she was a child
26:32
Speaker 1: who appeared to have significant difficulty processing emotions, handling into
26:38
Speaker 1: personal conflict, and communicating her feelings to others. Several reports
26:44
Speaker 1: suggested that she became intensely focused on perceived slights and
26:48
Speaker 1: struggled to move past them once they took hold in
26:51
Speaker 1: her mind, and those observations aligned closely with what investigators
26:55
Speaker 1: had already discovered about the online disputes. While many children
27:01
Speaker 1: might you know, get hurt by comments that might be
27:04
Speaker 1: you know, made about their appearance or something, girl A
27:07
Speaker 1: appeared to internalize those remarks in a way that few
27:10
Speaker 1: people around her fully understood. The insults didn't just make
27:14
Speaker 1: her angry in the moment, According to investigators, she continued
27:18
Speaker 1: to think about them for days on end, stewing on
27:22
Speaker 1: them endlessly, and rather than discussing the issue with her
27:25
Speaker 1: parents or teachers or school staff, she reportedly became increasingly
27:29
Speaker 1: fixated on that conflict, and that fixation would become one
27:34
Speaker 1: of the central themes in attempting to explain why this
27:38
Speaker 1: murder happened.
27:40
Speaker 2: That's really interesting, it is. I also to wonder if
27:44
Speaker 2: just her age, she didn't really correlate like what she
27:49
Speaker 2: was actually doing, and that like this was you know,
27:53
Speaker 2: killing someone and they were going to be gone.
27:55
Speaker 1: No, she knew they determined that she knew the consequences
27:59
Speaker 1: of her actions. Okay, I do go on to say
28:02
Speaker 1: that A little later here, specifically, she understood the consequence
28:05
Speaker 1: of her actions, And I think I followed it up
28:07
Speaker 1: by saying, even if she didn't fully understand the extent
28:10
Speaker 1: of the consequences, if that makes sense, Yeah, because she
28:14
Speaker 1: knew she was killing someone, She knew the girl wouldn't
28:17
Speaker 1: be around, But maybe she didn't understand the impact of
28:20
Speaker 1: Oh I literally took a life.
28:22
Speaker 2: The impact of the girl or not no longer being Yeah, the.
28:26
Speaker 1: Impact Like, she knows her actions, but she doesn't understand
28:29
Speaker 1: the impact of her actions. Uh huh to a degree,
28:32
Speaker 1: because most eleven year olds they understand death. She understood death,
28:38
Speaker 1: but the fact that she took a life that there's
28:41
Speaker 1: going to be consequences for like, and again, this could
28:44
Speaker 1: be going on a debate for so long. There's so
28:47
Speaker 1: much psychological stuff surrounding this. We could do hours and
28:50
Speaker 1: hours and hours to just conversation surrounding the impact of
28:55
Speaker 1: taking a life and whether someone understands it, especially at
28:58
Speaker 1: an age like that.
28:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get that they can understand death, but I
29:02
Speaker 2: don't think they fully understand death. You know, they know
29:05
Speaker 2: what it is, but they don't necessarily know the impact
29:09
Speaker 2: of it unless they've experienced.
29:11
Speaker 1: That well, touche, But I mean, you watch movies and stuff,
29:15
Speaker 1: you understand it at the very least, at least the
29:17
Speaker 1: basic foundation of it. And she understood that. And she
29:21
Speaker 1: was evaluated and they determined she understood that.
29:24
Speaker 2: Okay, wow.
29:27
Speaker 1: Now, during the investigation, reports also surfaced that Girl A
29:30
Speaker 1: had become increasingly isolated in the months leading up to
29:33
Speaker 1: the attack. And this is where we talk about withdrawing
29:35
Speaker 1: from activities that she once enjoyed, such as basketball. She
29:38
Speaker 1: also increased her amount of time online, where she maintained
29:41
Speaker 1: personal websites and interacted through message boards and such. Now,
29:45
Speaker 1: as evaluations continued, though, reports began emerging that Girl A
29:49
Speaker 1: had been diagnosed with one thing. Though. She was diagnosed
29:53
Speaker 1: with Asperger syndrome, which is a condition that at the
29:56
Speaker 1: time was considered a separate diagnosis but is now generally
30:00
Speaker 1: included under the broader autism spectrum disorder classification. According to
30:04
Speaker 1: those reports, specialists believed she experienced difficulties with social interactions,
30:09
Speaker 1: emotional communication, and interpreting the intentions of others, and this
30:15
Speaker 1: diagnosis quickly became the subject of public debate. Some people
30:20
Speaker 1: viewed it as a possible explanation for her behavior. But
30:22
Speaker 1: others worried that the diagnosis was being unfairly associated with violence.
30:28
Speaker 1: Mental health professionals were very quick to point out that
30:30
Speaker 1: Asperger syndrome does not cause people to commit violent acts
30:34
Speaker 1: such as murder, and that the overwhelming majority of individuals
30:38
Speaker 1: with this condition are not violent. That diagnosis may have
30:42
Speaker 1: helped explain certain aspects of her social difficulties maybe, but
30:46
Speaker 1: it did not provide a simple answer to the question
30:48
Speaker 1: investigators were asking of why did she do this?
30:52
Speaker 2: Now?
30:52
Speaker 1: The Family Court ultimately reached a similar conclusion. Although evaluators
30:57
Speaker 1: identified developmental and social challenge is, the court did not
31:02
Speaker 1: find that girl A lacked responsibility for her actions. Authorities
31:06
Speaker 1: concluded that she understood that she was what she was
31:08
Speaker 1: doing when she carried out the attack. She understood the
31:11
Speaker 1: consequences of her behavior, even if she did not fully
31:14
Speaker 1: appreciate the enormity of those consequences. There we go, That's
31:18
Speaker 1: what I was talking about.
31:20
Speaker 2: I okay, Yeah, that makes sense.
31:22
Speaker 1: By the time the evaluations were complete, authorities had a
31:26
Speaker 1: much clearer understanding of who girl A was and how
31:29
Speaker 1: she had arrived at the decision she made. What remained
31:32
Speaker 1: now was determining what should happen next. That decision would
31:36
Speaker 1: ultimately fall to Japan's family court system, where judges would
31:40
Speaker 1: face the difficult task of balancing accountability, public safety, rehabilitation,
31:45
Speaker 1: and the reality that the offender was still just a child.
31:49
Speaker 1: See because girl A was eleven years old at the
31:51
Speaker 1: time of the crime, so her case would not proceed
31:54
Speaker 1: through the criminal courts in the same way adult homicide
31:57
Speaker 1: cases would. Under Japanese law, under the age of fourteen
32:01
Speaker 1: cannot be held criminally responsible in the traditional sense. Instead,
32:07
Speaker 1: cases involving young offenders are handled through the family court system,
32:11
Speaker 1: which places a much stronger emphasis on rehabilitation and future
32:15
Speaker 1: reintegration into society. As the family court proceedings unfolded during
32:20
Speaker 1: the summer of two thousand and four, psychologists, social workers,
32:24
Speaker 1: and court appointed specialists continued to evaluate girl A. Their
32:28
Speaker 1: findings were reviewed alongside the evidence gathered by investigators and
32:32
Speaker 1: the statements that she had provided following her arrest, and
32:35
Speaker 1: on September fifteenth, two thousand and four, the court reached
32:39
Speaker 1: its verdict. The judges concluded that the murder had been
32:43
Speaker 1: intentional and that girl At understood the nature of her
32:46
Speaker 1: actions when she carried out the attack. At the same time,
32:50
Speaker 1: the court accepted the recommendation of specialists who believed she
32:54
Speaker 1: required long term treatment and supervision rather than traditional punishment.
33:00
Speaker 1: The result was an order committing her to a state
33:03
Speaker 1: run juvenile correctional and rehabilitation facility. So for the next
33:08
Speaker 1: several years, girl A remained with that juvenile system. Reports
33:12
Speaker 1: indicated that she was sent to a correctional facility in
33:15
Speaker 1: Tochiki Prefecture, where she underwent counseling and ongoing treatment. And
33:20
Speaker 1: because of her age, the exact details of her confinement
33:23
Speaker 1: were largely kept from the public, and as a result
33:26
Speaker 1: of much much of what happened to girl A after
33:28
Speaker 1: September two thousand and four remained completely hidden behind confidentiality laws.
33:35
Speaker 1: We don't know anything else about her after that. Now,
33:38
Speaker 1: while the legal process moved forward, life at Okbuo Elementary
33:42
Speaker 1: School was changed forever. The students who had shared classrooms
33:47
Speaker 1: with Stomi and Girl A suddenly found themselves navigating circumstances
33:51
Speaker 1: that few children could fully comprehend. Counselors were brought in
33:55
Speaker 1: to assist students and staff struggling with the processing of
33:59
Speaker 1: the tragedy. Teachers faced the difficult task of helping children
34:02
Speaker 1: make sense of a murder that occurred inside their own
34:05
Speaker 1: school with their own classmates, and one of the most
34:09
Speaker 1: painful challenges involved graduation. The students who had witnessed the
34:13
Speaker 1: aftermath of the crime would soon be leaving the elementary
34:16
Speaker 1: school and moving to junior high Traditionally, Japanese schools commemorate
34:21
Speaker 1: graduation with class photographs, yearbooks, and certificates, marking the completion
34:26
Speaker 1: of a major stage in a student's life. But in
34:29
Speaker 1: this case, two students were missing from the classroom, and
34:33
Speaker 1: one of them was dead. The other was confined to
34:36
Speaker 1: a juvenile institution. According to reports, school officials consulted students
34:41
Speaker 1: and parents alike about how the graduation album should be handled. Ultimately,
34:46
Speaker 1: so Tony's photograph was included and a blank space was
34:50
Speaker 1: reportedly left in the place of Girl A's photograph, which
34:54
Speaker 1: allowed individual students to decide for themselves whether they wished
34:58
Speaker 1: to insert a photo of her or not.
35:01
Speaker 2: Huh, holy gosh, everything here that you're just discussing right now,
35:05
Speaker 2: it just seems impossible, Yeah, for my brain to just
35:10
Speaker 2: comprehend and put together.
35:12
Speaker 1: Well, no, that word's perfect, You nailed it. Impossible. Imagine
35:15
Speaker 1: being the principle of that student, that's sorry, that student
35:19
Speaker 1: the school and trying to make the decision on how
35:21
Speaker 1: to handle that, how to execute the yearbook. Should you
35:25
Speaker 1: include this person should you not? And even consulting parents, yes,
35:31
Speaker 1: because there's going to be conflicting decisions and what people want.
35:34
Speaker 2: You're not going to be able to make everyone happy.
35:36
Speaker 2: There's absolutely no.
35:37
Speaker 1: Way for sure. So how do you handle the situation? It's,
35:40
Speaker 1: as you said, impossible now. Also, graduation certificates became part
35:45
Speaker 1: of the difficult balancing act too, so Tony received a
35:49
Speaker 1: posthumous graduation certificate recognizing the completion of her elementary school education,
35:55
Speaker 1: and girl A also received a graduation certificate while in
35:59
Speaker 1: custody so that she could continue her education and eventually
36:02
Speaker 1: transition into society if rehabilitation proved successful. Throughout this period,
36:09
Speaker 1: Koji Mitterai continued speaking publicly about the loss of his daughter.
36:13
Speaker 1: His comments consistently reflected a struggle to understand how the
36:17
Speaker 1: tragedy had happened in the first place, and, like many
36:20
Speaker 1: following the case, he was left searching for an explanation
36:24
Speaker 1: that never seemed entirely satisfying.
36:27
Speaker 2: The poor man and the poor family they had experienced
36:30
Speaker 2: so much loss because you had already said that the
36:32
Speaker 2: mom had died of cancer. Correct, So that is just
36:36
Speaker 2: like I don't even know how you move forward. The
36:39
Speaker 2: poor siblings and stuff like, holy brig Yeah.
36:42
Speaker 1: The family went through an unimaginable a few years by
36:47
Speaker 1: the sounds of it, more.
36:48
Speaker 2: Than any family should ever go through. Yeah.
36:50
Speaker 1: So I can't fathom being in their shoes.
36:53
Speaker 2: Yeah. Now.
36:55
Speaker 1: The murder of Stomi also reignited a national debate that
36:58
Speaker 1: had been simmering in Japan for years. The country had
37:01
Speaker 1: experienced several high profile juvenile crimes during the late nineteen
37:05
Speaker 1: nineties and early two thousands, including the famous Kobe child
37:09
Speaker 1: murders and the murder of a four year old boy
37:12
Speaker 1: in nearby Nagasaki in two thousand and three. Each of
37:15
Speaker 1: these cases raised questions about whether existing laws were adequate
37:19
Speaker 1: for dealing with extremely serious crimes committed by children. Following
37:24
Speaker 1: this case, those discussions intensified. Some commentators argued that the
37:29
Speaker 1: age of criminal responsibility should be lowered even further below
37:33
Speaker 1: the age of fourteen and what it currently was. Educators, psychologists, politicians,
37:37
Speaker 1: legal experts all debated everything from internet use to school
37:41
Speaker 1: counseling to parenting practices and juvenile justice reform, but ultimately
37:46
Speaker 1: nothing changed. What did emerge was a growing recognition that
37:50
Speaker 1: this case had become far more than a local tragedy.
37:53
Speaker 1: It had become a national conversation about childhood responsibility, violence,
37:58
Speaker 1: and the challenges of understanding why some people commit acts
38:01
Speaker 1: that seem impossible to explain. And at the very least,
38:05
Speaker 1: it ingrained something in the culture for the adults, the educators,
38:09
Speaker 1: the parents, and everyone to try and do better to
38:13
Speaker 1: all the children around them.
38:14
Speaker 2: Well, honestly, I totally see that technology is making kids
38:19
Speaker 2: grow up quicker than before.
38:21
Speaker 1: Oh it is, and it's.
38:22
Speaker 2: Just getting worse and worse. Like two thousand and four,
38:25
Speaker 2: I don't necessarily think that was it was a bit true,
38:28
Speaker 2: but even now, it's like an eleven year old today
38:31
Speaker 2: versus an eleven year old like when there wasn't technology,
38:34
Speaker 2: just completely different kids.
38:36
Speaker 1: Oh, one hundred percent. Back, Like I understand, the Internet
38:39
Speaker 1: was just in its infancy in that time, and kids
38:41
Speaker 1: were on those websites and message boards and everything. I
38:45
Speaker 1: was on MSN, I was googling stuff, I was playing
38:49
Speaker 1: video games. I was on different chat boards and stuff,
38:52
Speaker 1: talking to God knows who. So I understand, it was
38:57
Speaker 1: an open world and we were growing.
38:59
Speaker 2: Up so fast.
39:00
Speaker 1: But like you said, it's tenfold nowadays too.
39:04
Speaker 2: I mean, the one thing I guess is parents nowadays
39:07
Speaker 2: at least know like the risks a bit more than
39:10
Speaker 2: like the parents back then.
39:11
Speaker 1: There's a lot more awareness now. Despite all the strict
39:16
Speaker 1: laws protecting the identities of juvenile offenders, people on the
39:20
Speaker 1: Internet had begun searching for answers of their own, answers
39:23
Speaker 1: that were intended to stay hidden. From the moment of
39:27
Speaker 1: Girl A's arrest, Japanese media followed legal restrictions that prohibited
39:32
Speaker 1: identifying a juvenile suspect, so she was known only as
39:35
Speaker 1: Girl A, which was a generic label just to protect
39:38
Speaker 1: her identity, and put a title to referencing her. The
39:42
Speaker 1: public knew almost nothing about the eleven year old beyond
39:45
Speaker 1: the limited details released during the investigation, but that's when
39:49
Speaker 1: the internet got involved. In Japan, one of the most
39:52
Speaker 1: influential online communities at the time was two Channel, a
39:56
Speaker 1: massive anonymous message board where users discussed everything from politics
40:01
Speaker 1: to entertainment to crime and conspiracy theories, and the Sassabo
40:05
Speaker 1: murder quickly became one of the most discussed topics on
40:08
Speaker 1: the platform. Many users were dissatisfied with limited information being
40:14
Speaker 1: released to authorities in the media, and the more officials
40:17
Speaker 1: attempted to protect Girl A's identity, the more determined some
40:21
Speaker 1: users became to uncover it. Amateur investigators began collecting information,
40:27
Speaker 1: comparing reports, and searching for anything that might reveal who
40:31
Speaker 1: she was, and their efforts received an unexpected boost from television.
40:36
Speaker 1: According to multiple reports, a Fuji TV broadcast covering the
40:40
Speaker 1: case aired artwork that had allegedly been created by Girl A,
40:45
Speaker 1: and that artwork reportedly contained identifying information that viewers were
40:50
Speaker 1: able to examine closely. Now whether it was due to
40:54
Speaker 1: an oversight or misunderstanding, or just a failure to recognize
40:57
Speaker 1: what was actually visible on the screen, the result was
41:00
Speaker 1: the same. Internet users immediately began dissecting the images frame
41:05
Speaker 1: by frame, and within days information along with her real name,
41:10
Speaker 1: was reportedly identified and shared online. Personal details followed too,
41:16
Speaker 1: and photographs began circulating, and among the images being shared
41:19
Speaker 1: was a class photo that would prove especially significant to
41:23
Speaker 1: the story. You see in that picture, a young girl
41:27
Speaker 1: who was believed to be Girl A, was wearing a
41:30
Speaker 1: sweatshirt bearing the name of university of Nevada Reno. It
41:34
Speaker 1: was a completely ordinary piece of clothing, a random happenstance
41:38
Speaker 1: that that's the shirt she was wearing. Yet that sweater
41:41
Speaker 1: would ultimately become one of the most recognizable symbols associated
41:45
Speaker 1: with this case to date. As Internet users continued discussing
41:50
Speaker 1: the murder, they began referring to the suspected girl or
41:54
Speaker 1: girl a in this photograph as Nevada ten. Combined the
42:00
Speaker 1: words Nevada from the sweatshirt with the honorific tan, a
42:05
Speaker 1: variation of chan, which is commonly used in japan internet
42:08
Speaker 1: culture to reference a young female character in an acute
42:12
Speaker 1: or affectionate way, so thus being born Nevada ten and
42:17
Speaker 1: this nickname spread rapidly. Soon large portions of the online
42:22
Speaker 1: discussion were no longer focused on the murder itself. They
42:25
Speaker 1: were focused on Nevada ten and what happened next. Remains
42:29
Speaker 1: one of the strangest aspects aspects of this entire case,
42:32
Speaker 1: and honestly, it frustrates the absolute hell out of me, because,
42:36
Speaker 1: rather than simply discussing the crime, internet communities began creating
42:40
Speaker 1: content centered around the killer's online persona. There was fan
42:45
Speaker 1: art illustrations that circled throughout message boards. Some users treated
42:50
Speaker 1: Nevada Tan almost like a fictional character rather than a
42:53
Speaker 1: real child who had murdered a classmate, a real girl
42:57
Speaker 1: named Satomis. Years past, the phenomenon continued to grow. The
43:03
Speaker 1: image of the girl in the Nevada sweatshirt became widely
43:06
Speaker 1: recognizable among certain corners of Internet culture. References to Nevada
43:11
Speaker 1: ten appeared on websites, forums, image boards, and eventually social
43:15
Speaker 1: media platforms. Some people became so fascinated by the mystery
43:20
Speaker 1: surrounding her identity, which was never really spread that far
43:23
Speaker 1: because Nevada ten instead seemed to take over instead. That
43:27
Speaker 1: transformation disturbed so many observers, me being one of them.
43:32
Speaker 2: That's yeah, that's disgusting.
43:35
Speaker 1: This was the story of a murder of a twelve
43:37
Speaker 1: year old girl, and it was gradually becoming something else entirely.
43:42
Speaker 1: In fact, the victim was fading from the background, or
43:44
Speaker 1: into the background, I should say, the killer was becoming
43:47
Speaker 1: the story itself. For Stomi Mataree's family, there was no mystery,
43:53
Speaker 1: There was no Internet phenomenon, and no cultural curiosity. There
43:57
Speaker 1: was only the loss of her where she lost her
44:01
Speaker 1: life in an elementary school classroom, yet online discussions often
44:06
Speaker 1: seemed to forget that. Over time, many people became familiar
44:10
Speaker 1: with the nickname Nevada Tan without even knowing much about
44:13
Speaker 1: Satomi herself. The offender's image, their online presence and mythology,
44:19
Speaker 1: even at this point, sometimes received more attention than the victim.
44:24
Speaker 1: Japanese privacy law has been designed to protect the identity
44:28
Speaker 1: of a child offender, but instead those restrictions arguably fueled
44:33
Speaker 1: public's curiosity, and the effort to conceal information encouraged thousands
44:37
Speaker 1: of people to search for it, and in the process,
44:40
Speaker 1: one of Japan's most notorious juvenile offenders became one of
44:45
Speaker 1: the country's earliest examples of Internet driven true crime obsession,
44:50
Speaker 1: turning Nevada Tan into an almost urban legend. More than
44:56
Speaker 1: two decades later, the Sassibo slashing remained one of the
45:00
Speaker 1: most infamous juvenile crimes in Japanese history. It's remembered because
45:04
Speaker 1: an eleven year old murdered a classmate inside an elementary
45:08
Speaker 1: It's remembered because of the role online communication appeared to
45:12
Speaker 1: play in the deterioration of the friendship of the two.
45:16
Speaker 1: It's remembered because it sparked debates about juvenile justice, childhood,
45:21
Speaker 1: mental health, internet culture, and criminal responsibility, and it's also
45:26
Speaker 1: remembered because of Nevada ten. But beneath all of those discussions,
45:32
Speaker 1: beneath the debates, the theories and internet myths, lies a
45:36
Speaker 1: much simpler and much sadder reality. On the morning of
45:40
Speaker 1: June first, two thousand and four, twelve year old Satai
45:44
Speaker 1: Mitterrey left for school, expecting to return home that afternoon,
45:50
Speaker 1: but she never did. Everything that followed, the investigation, the
45:55
Speaker 1: court proceedings, and media coverage and internet phenomenon well again
46:00
Speaker 1: with the loss of a child whose life ended inside
46:02
Speaker 1: a classroom where she should have been safe, and more
46:06
Speaker 1: than twenty years later, that remains the most important fact
46:11
Speaker 1: of this entire story, and that's the story of Setomi Mitaae.
46:22
Speaker 2: I almost feel like I just need more processing time
46:25
Speaker 2: with this one. It's just so much to take in.
46:27
Speaker 2: And I freaking hate the Nevada tan That is just
46:34
Speaker 2: fucked up. Like sorry, but it is the fact that
46:37
Speaker 2: people are doing fan art and shit like go fuck yourself. Yeah,
46:42
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, but go fuck yourself.
46:44
Speaker 1: Yep, you're not wrong. I agree.
46:47
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I don't know that pissed me off
46:49
Speaker 2: big time.
46:49
Speaker 1: That's the cannibal. The celebrity cannibal is another case that
46:54
Speaker 1: really pisses me off because people idolized a killer and
46:58
Speaker 1: they're doing the same in this story. So when I
47:00
Speaker 1: was researching this, I was immediately drawing that parallel to
47:04
Speaker 1: people idolizing someone who committed a horrific act and they're
47:08
Speaker 1: forgetting the victims in the story. Yeah, and it enrages
47:13
Speaker 1: me a ridiculous amount.
47:15
Speaker 2: It's almost like they put her at like a like
47:19
Speaker 2: this fictional uh, like comic Caro or something. Yeah, in
47:25
Speaker 2: a sense, I don't know, That's sort of what was
47:27
Speaker 2: going through my mind, and I just don't like it.
47:29
Speaker 1: Well, when we watch horror movies nowadays, like we all
47:31
Speaker 1: know Ghostface, we all know Freddy Krueger, we all know
47:34
Speaker 1: Jason and Michael Myers. We all they're horror stories, right,
47:39
Speaker 1: The killings were fictional, so we kind of like we
47:42
Speaker 1: get tattoos and posters and we love to watch the
47:45
Speaker 1: movies and joke and eat popcorn and talk about it
47:48
Speaker 1: and dress up as them and Halloween, we idolize them
47:52
Speaker 1: almost as this pop culture icon. Yeah, and it seems
47:55
Speaker 1: like these people took a real story into the same
47:57
Speaker 1: fucking thing.
47:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe that's exactly it made.
48:00
Speaker 1: This like, poulp, what did you say by your pop
48:02
Speaker 1: culture icon?
48:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is but it's real life and it's not okay,
48:07
Speaker 2: and a little girl lost her life.
48:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this I started this by saying that this was,
48:13
Speaker 1: you know, the story of the Sassobo slashing. It's the
48:16
Speaker 1: story of Nevada Tante. I didn't say it, but I
48:17
Speaker 1: mean it was kind of like, that's in the title
48:19
Speaker 1: of this episode. But the true story of this today,
48:22
Speaker 1: this episode is the story of Setomi and how she
48:27
Speaker 1: lost her life so dramatically and unnecessarily in such a
48:30
Speaker 1: violent way.
48:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, in a way that just I don't think that
48:35
Speaker 2: you know, anyone would think whatever happen, right, So it's
48:40
Speaker 2: it's heartbreaking. It is. Well.
48:43
Speaker 1: That being said, thank you for being here. If you
48:46
Speaker 1: want to check out our description of this podcast, you
48:48
Speaker 1: can let us know what you think on this case.
48:49
Speaker 1: You can check out our social media is and all
48:51
Speaker 1: that good stuff. We appreciate you. If you can go
48:54
Speaker 1: ahead and give our podcast a review. If you enjoyed
48:56
Speaker 1: this story and many of our other stories we've done,
48:58
Speaker 1: it would go a long way, we aren't in dependent show.
49:01
Speaker 1: It's us and you and we get to keep doing
49:03
Speaker 1: it because of you, so thank you, and of course,
49:06
Speaker 1: as always, stay wicked, don't
50:05
Speaker 2: Bo