Episode 38: Akita Child Murders

Black Torii — Japanese True Crime · Aug 8, 2026 · 12m

In the spring of 2006, in a farming town in northern Japan with a population of just four thousand people, a nine-year-old girl was found drowned in a river. Her mother — a single parent in her early thirties — appeared on national television, weeping. She demanded that police reopen what had been classified as a tragic accident. She made posters by hand and plastered them around town. She told reporters, with apparent devastation, that her daughter had been murdered, and that the killer was still out there. She was right about all of it. Except for one detail. The killer wasn't a stranger…