Rotten Mango - #301: Japanese Dad-Daughter Duo Decapitate Victim In Love Motel

Episode Date: October 4, 2023

A lot of love motels are themed - and they are exactly what you imagine they would be used for. Couples coming and staying for a few hours to have their alone time. Runa, a 29-year-old living in Japan, was in an all-pink room of the local love motel. He was waiting for her in the bathroom, but she had a few things she had to prepare first. She reached into her suitcase and pulled out her raincoat. She could smell the scent of the fresh plastic. She then reached in and grabbed gloves. Now, she was ready for him. 3 hours later, she would be seen rushing out of the motel. Her dad was picking her up, and she didn’t want to be late. She got into his car in fresh clothes, and a blonde wig, and threw her suitcase in his trunk. The suitcase with the decapitated man’s head inside. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bramble. Better being better, boom. Have you ever been to a love motel? Love motels are pretty popular in Asia. They're designed for people to get in and get out. Literally. The utilization is not the same as regular hotels. If you're visiting South Korea for a week, I mean, chances are you're not booking a love

hotel for a week. It's mainly for couples that are looking for a bed or either a few hours. Maybe the entire night if you've got the stamina and you can typically tell when it's a love motel, they'll have these neon love hearts outside or it'll say love in the name or cute bit. It'll advertise a rest rate. So a rest rate is different from normal hotel stay rates. Stay rates are when you book the room for the night. So I mean, we've all been there, right? You check in Saturday afternoon, check out Sunday.

Rest rates are just you book a room for a few hours during the day, which you can imagine what people are using this for. I was planning on going to a ton of love motels in Korean next time that I'm there just because I think it's so fascinating. You know, a lot of them are themed. Each room has a color theme or a fantasy theme. There's a love hotel in Japan where you can rent a room that is designed after the Japanese subway station. They will even play the announcements of like arriving at blah, blah, blah station. Be careful of sliding doors. Do you've ever had the urge to do it on public transit? This would be your safest bet. I imagine. There's one where you can rent a fake doctor's exam room. There's fake X-rays,

stethoscope setup, and of course you can even rent role-playing costumes. There's another love motel where every single room is just hardcore BDSM dungeons. It's called Hotel Alpha in Tokyo. You get complimentary whips, collars, gags, featheredusters, and blindfolds. There's a bunch of different frames so you can be suspended on the walls or the ceiling if that's what you prefer. Suspended on the ceiling? Yeah, like hanging from the ceiling.

Upside down, if that's your thing. Okay. I mean the TVs in these love motels they typically come complete with like a collection of adult entertainment to watch and if you're feeling extra frisky I guess in Korea you can get your love hotel to be ramen themed. You can sleep inside of a bed inside of a cup ramen. That's the one. Yeah and they know what you're doing inside of that cup ramen because most love hotels they come equipped with two

complimentary pieces of protection So Runa a 29 year old Japanese woman was at one of these love motels in the red light district of Sapporo, Japan. This is like June of this year So a few months ago and the room that they booked for the next few hours was an all pink themed room the walls the carpeting hours with an all pink themed room, the walls, the carpeting, the table, everything was pink. He was waiting for her in the bathtub.

Just a second, I'll be right there. She reaches into her suitcase and pulls out her new raincoat. It's got the smell of thick plastic. She unfolds it, puts it on, covering her clothes. Then she bends down, grabs a pair of gloves, squeezes her hands, it's like those rubber kitchen gloves. Squeezees her hands in until they make this like satisfying smack sound. Now, now she's ready for him. For three hours, Runa would be in the bathroom with this man. She would walk back out into the all-pink room and start packing up her bags. Her job was done. Her dad, an influential psychiatrist at a local hospital,

would be picking her up soon. She didn't want to keep him waiting outside the hotel, so she throws in her ringcoat, she throws in her gloves back into the suitcase. She digs out fresh clothes and pulls out a blonde wig. It's probably itchy, but it would be good to have it on that night. She adjusts the wig, puts on lipstick, and grabs the handle of her suitcase, and walks out that hotel room door. Some would say that she had a pip in her step.

Maybe it was the new toy that she had just acquired. In her suitcase, she had the decapitated head of the man bobbing around. As always, full show notes are available at rottonminglepodcast.com. As with most international cases, we had our wonderful Japanese researchers assist in gathering of the facts and also analyzing social discourse about this case. I mean, this was pretty big in Japan, it still is. The crime happened just a few months ago. Trial has not started yet. So it's a developing case. Which is a good time to mention

that nobody has been convicted in the court of law. I mean the evidence here is overwhelming to say the least and there really doesn't seem to be too much of a debate on if this person did something. But more so on, why did this person do this? Or was anybody else involved? So I'm really curious to get your thoughts on this one. Please leave it in the comments. But as always, if there's anything lost in translation, anything that we missed, please let me know.

And with that being said, let's get started. Do you think therapists take their own advice? Probably not. Probably not. Right? Like, when they have a parent sitting in their There are people I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I think you do Like when they have a parent sitting in their therapy chair and they tell them you know, it's time Mrs. Lee it's time you gotta let your child adult child learn and grow It's time for them to learn consequences on their own. You've done their job. You need to give them space.

Stop hovering. Do you think those same therapists, if they are also parents, go home and follow their own advice? While in the office, Dr. Tamura, he preached the importance of setting boundaries, healthy family dynamics, and giving children the space to learn. But all Fours, Dr. Tamura found himself in very strange situations. That night, after work, Dr. Tamura still dressed in his smart business casual attire.

He would end up at a club. There were drunk party goers like all around him, surrounding him, spilling the drinks in their hands, swaying to the music they're him, spilling the drinks in their hands, swaying to the music they're screaming, and in the middle of this crowd he's just standing there. He's not even trying to fit in. He's not even, it's really weird if you, there's a CCTV video of this, but he just stands there, staring intently at someone. He was holding his daughter's jacket in his arm waiting for her While watching her dance intimately with the man The man that they planned to murder

Is he hiding or he's no he's not hiding no that's the weirder part Because I can't imagine dancing like that in front of my dad Even with my husband. Yeah, so the man also knows the dad was watching. I don't know if the man knows, but the daughter knows. Oh, okay, okay. It's really weird. Her name is Runa Tamura, and she'd always been a little bit weird. If you see pictures of her, she's got long black hair down to her waist,

and it's almost always pinned straight, or at least the pictures I've seen. Her face is really pale in the sense that it looks like she doesn't spend a lot of time out in the sun. So the contrast of the long, dark black hair and her pale skin, it does kind of add like a ghostly look. She doesn't smile often, that's what people said. And she had this very creepy tendency to stare deeply into your eyes with this empty dark look.

In her free time, her hair would be like half covering her face and she would hum. Make these little trinkets for her doll collections. She loved dolls as a 29-year-old, which nothing's wrong with that, but it's a little creepy. Like what kind of trinkets? Little doll clothing. Should just be sitting there so focused. Growing up, Runa had a bit of a temper. That's probably what the teachers called it.

Okay, when they bring her parents in for yet another emergency meeting, it's a nice way of saying, excuse me, sir, there is something seriously wrong with your child. And the dad would say something along the lines of, well what did our ruin it do this time I don't understand. Well your daughter came to school wearing a dress. Okay. And a little boy from class gathered up all this courage

to walk over to your daughter, tap her on the shoulder and say, Hey, um, you look, you look so... I think he was trying to say, you look pretty, you look like an anime character. Your daughter pulled out a knife and told him she would stab him and then chased him around with that said knife all around the classroom. Another time teachers were eating lunch in the break room

and they're like, did you see what one of her students wrote in the essay? They're like, no, what? I wanna see and they're gathered around passing you see what one of her students wrote in the essay? They're like, no, what? I want to see. And they're gathered around, passing around this piece of paper with this very childish writing on there. I mean, it's clearly the work of like a fourth grader. And the words said, I had lots of fun during the school field trip, but I was shocked that

I was the only girl that brought a wooden sword. There seems to be very few girls who are interested in knives and swords like I am. Rune's parents were called in for yet another emergency meeting. The teacher's most likely suggested nicely, of course, that Rune was exhibiting some alarming behavior that at least to them it felt like she could use some professional help, right? Dr. Tamura clearly disagreed. He would later state, I'm a psychiatrist. I'm treating my daughter myself. Side note, he's not even just a regular psychiatrist. He is the head of psychiatry at the Kineco Central

Hospital, so this guy's a big shot psychiatrist. By the time that Runa is 29, I don't think that she got any professional help any counseling therapy any sort of psychiatric treatment Unless it was done by her dad at least that's what it seems like according to the sources At 29 she's still living with her parents and the family dynamic was odd I wouldn't say that it's clear that Runa was in charge but her parents I Mean they spoiled her they try to give her everything that she wanted. Her dad would go out on these business trips, go out of his way to buy her these cute, frilly pink, almost like Lolita-esque style dresses, even post about it on Facebook.

And this part is also interesting, but when he posted about his daughter on Facebook, he always referred to as like, Musumi-san, which Musami, I think I'm saying that right, is a common way to say daughter in Japan. But when sign is added, it becomes a lot more formal if not even distant and respectful. So it's one thing if a kid addresses their parent like that. But for a parent to address their child like that, it felt like he was treating his child like royalty. Like he bows down

at her feet and worships the ground she walks on. At 29, Runa is completely secluded. She spent most of her days in her family's three-story concrete mansion. A three-story concrete house in Japan is a luxury. Like, you would need to have some real money to have that type of home. I mean, I didn't even have this garden that misses Tamara love taking care of. So it's a nice one. People that knew Runa said, you know, she's, she's reclusive. But there's not like anything strikingly wrong with her. Like, she's not weird.

She doesn't give me the creeps. People even thought it was kind of a shame. Some of her former friends said, you know, she's not weird, she doesn't give me the creeps. People even thought it was kind of a shame. Some of her former friends said, you know, she's so pretty. She's pretty, she's young. Her family's really well off. She could have easily had the perfect life. Anytime we invited her anywhere with people her age,

she would just sit in the corner on her phone. She would never smile. She looked miserable. It seems like Runa preferred to the corner on her phone. She would never smile. She looked miserable. It seems like Runa preferred to spend time with her dad. A relative said her parents, you know, they They drown her in so much love. I guess that's the way to put it Hotel Lets is a love hotel in the red light district of Sapporo, Japan. It's not a big one It's got 14 rooms, so it's not difficult for the staff to keep track of the guests that are coming in and out. I guess the whole point of their job is to not track who's coming in and out, but at least they have to manage which rooms had guests that are overseeing their visit. They pay for three hours, they

better be gone by the third hour. At 3 p.m., the front desk noticed that room 202, that had two occupants. They saw one leave already in the middle of the night, but the other guess hadn't left. I mean it's way past checkout time. Maybe they forgot to set the alarm. Maybe they slept in after a long fun night. The receptionist goes upstairs to room 202. She's knocking.

Front desk! No response. She puts her ear up to the door. Which I mean, that's a pretty bold thing to do in a love hotel, but this is her job. She's got to make sure that they're out so she can rent this room again. She tries not to get again. No answer. Heads back downstairs to grab this bear key. Runs all the way back up.

One more time. If anyone's in there, we're coming in unless you open the door. Nothing. Silence. Not even a peep, not even shuffling a blanket or furniture. Nothing. So she inserts the hotel key, opens the door, and the room is perfectly fine. It's all pink, nothing has...

The bed is empty, completely unused, no personal items left behind. Maybe all the guests left on the front desk just failed to notice. Maybe it was extra busy that night. But there was something off about this room. It was just too clean. It didn't even feel like a single person stayed here even for an hour. I mean, this is a love motel. It's not uncommon for things to be used, moved around, rearranged. She's about to walk back out, but it is hotel policy to check the entirety of the room

to make sure the guests have evacuated before they send in the cleaners. She does a quick sweep of the main room. Bed, TV, mini fridge, everything is pink, everything is good. She takes a left into the bathroom, and right there, in contrast to the soft pink bright pastel color of the room, was the worst thing that she had ever seen in her life. Her voice got caught in her throat and she starts stumbling like backwards. She lets out this scream. I mean, it's the type of scream that every single person inside this hotel would know. That's not a scream of fun, it's the type of scream that every single person inside this hotel would know. That's not a scream of fun.

That's a scream of sheer terror. In the bathtub of this very pink room, propped up against the bathtub wall, was a naked body, hands tied behind their back, without a head. The body was taken immediately into police custody, and it was just chaos at this hotel. Side note, murders in Japan are pretty rare and we're going to get into that later, but they had 240 police officers working this case. So this was a big, big case.

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Shhhhh. They bring the body in. They run the body's fingerprints. They start cross referencing all the missing persons cases that are active right now. And the body belonged to a father of two and husband Hitoshi Yura Hitoshi had been found brutally slain in the love motel's bathroom and there's so many questions like who killed him

Why did they kill him and what is a family man doing in a love motel bathroom? Hitoshi Yura was said to be a very kind man more of a low key member of the community. And I think that's very interesting. So I realized that each culture, they have their own way of saying that someone was nice, never did anything stranger bad. In the US, these types of cases, I feel like it's always,

oh, you know, they were your girl next door, they were so normal, they were perfectly normal, suburban, all American, they lit up the room when they walked in. In Japan, I always see this with cases. They're described as never causing issues. Yeah, law-biting. Yes. Like I just thought it's so interesting,

because Japan and even Korea, there are cultures that are heavily frowned upon when you inconvenience people around you. But people said, no, Hato, she was actually super nice in law biting. If you were lost in the neighborhood, you might want to ask Hatochi where you are. He just seemed so approachable, very friendly. And this is crazy, but he was 62 years old.

He does not look 62. People said that he easily passes for 40. I saw pictures, probably 40, yeah. I wouldn't even say 50. I mean, he looks really, really young. A lot of people said that his energy itself was young too. He seemed very fun to be around. Now, side note, before I show you pictures of him,

I do need to preface that there is only one confirmed photo of him right now that is circulating where he is dressed in masculine clothes. Now, the rest of the pictures depict him wearing feminine clothing and wearing makeup. I'm still going to use he-him pronouns because there's no indication that he identified as a woman. He just liked to wear makeup and dress in more quote feminine clothing when he went out for the night. He usually only wore feminine clothing and makeup when he went out for either big events, big parties, when he went to the clubs and bars. And that kind of becomes a point of contention later on because we have no idea if Hitoshi's wife knew that he was dressing up and going to these types of parties at night,

or if it was all done in secret. And it has nothing to do with the type of clothing he's wearing, but just, you know, marriage, who knows about this, who doesn't. Hatoji's friends would later say, he would go out dressed in a bit more feminine attire, meet girls at clubs, specifically in the red light district of Sapporo, and bring them back to love motels. Again, we don't know if this is an arrangement that his wife was okay with, but it does seem like this was Hatochi's way of letting loose, dancing, having fun, just escaping from his daily life and making your friends. He's really social.

Like when he went out, it's like he was in his element, he's living purely in that moment. May 28th, 2023, Hatochi hits up a club in the Red Light District, and that's where he runs into Runa. There are videos from that night of them dancing on each other, and the club itself is really packed. It feels very lively. If you're just listening, I'm going to describe what the CCTV camera footage is showing. Hatochi and Runa are kind of off on the corner dancing along. Honestly, it looks more like they're hugging than anything else. It's like they're hugging and swaying to the music. A few key takeaways.

It seems super mutual. Runa seems to be enjoying Hitoshi's company, and netizens have stated, it actually seems like Runa is the more clingy one. Her arm's around Hitoshi's neck, and she's smiling a lot. She's putting her head on his chest, leaning up, and snuggling

her face into the crook of his neck. Meanwhile, Hatochius, kind of standing there, engaging with her, hugging her back. I mean, his body language doesn't indicate that he's uncomfortable, but Runa is definitely the one that's actively hugging him. Is this the one that the dad was standing off? Yes. Like, 20 feet away. Her dad is standing, staring at them while holding her jacket. It is so odd. And he's standing and there's dancers all around him,

like club goers dancing, swaying to the music. And he's standing still. He's not even pretending to sway to the music. He's not even trying to fit in. This is so weird. Yes, so creepy. I'm never heard this type of you know relationship. Yeah, that's all. We're gonna get into some theories about this relationship later, but it is very odd. And Runa and

Hatochis, their first encounter, it seems very flirtatious. Netizen stated that at times it seems like Runa is almost kissing Hatochis neck on the dance floor. Again, her dad is like right there watching. One moment they're having a good time, until they're not. Everything else going forward about this night in question are just pure speculations. It is speculated that after they leave the club, Runa and Hatochi were hitting it off so well on the dance floor, they decide let's get to know each other in a quieter setting. They rent a room in a local love motel.

We don't know if Runa's dad went in with them. If he waited outside for his daughter to be done. We thought we'd know if they rent a room or not. They did. They did go to a hotel. But we don't know if her dad came in the room. If her dad was waiting in the car outside the hotel or if her dad was like, oh, well, I'm just going to go home, call a cab home.

Okay, we don't know who went in there. Yes, I imagine it was just Runa and Hitoshi. Okay. So the two Runa and Hitoshi went to a local love motel and it's alleged by Runa and her family that Hitoshi assaulted her that night. According to Runa's grandfather, the family believed Hitoshi was wearing morph, feminine clothing, not because he wanted to she was wearing more feminine clothing, not because he wanted to, not because he liked it, but because it was easier for a young woman to let their guard down around him if he was dressed in that way.

Now, I don't think that we need to put a disclaimer here, but I'm just going to put one just in case. This is just an allegation from Runa's side of the family. We don't even know if there's an ounce of truth to this. But even if there is, I don't think that this should reflect badly on people who wear clothing that might not fit societies, expectations of them or their gender. Like who really defines feminine clothing, or masculine clothing?

Like who's allowed to wear makeup and who's not? But this allegation has become a very big part of the case so I can't not mention it. Runa seems to alleged that Hitoshi lured her to the love motel, then assaulted her. There's an even wilder allegation thrown in there that Hitoshi recorded the assault and was planning on blackmailing Runa and her family with it later on. Again, these are all just allegations as of right now. Either way, Runa must have told her parents about it because they go into full lockdown mode after that night.

Do you think that you would notice if your neighbor's daily habits changed? Like even just a little. Neighbor always washes their car on their driveway on Sundays. Now suddenly they start doing on Saturdays. Do you think, oh, maybe their off days changed or do you think, oh, maybe they're holding someone captive. And they're holding someone captive? And they only have someone to watch that person in their basement on Saturdays. Would you even notice?

You like know, absolutely not. So the Tamura family's neighbors were observant, but they very much followed the Japanese culture of minding their own business. But it was kind of hard. Dr. Tamura was just being straight up creepy. It's like he was on a one-man neighborhood watch situation. Every day he would stand at his front door, eating a cup of ramen while staring intently down the street. It made neighbors very nervous when they walked past his house.

Other times he'd be sitting in his car that was parked facing the street level. He would be eating a full bento box in his car, just staring not on his phone, not listening to music, not listening to a park staring onto the street. All day? All day. Neighbors felt like it's like he's waiting for someone or like waiting for something. We don't know. And this once friendly Dr. Tamarra, they would wave and he just had this dark expression

on his face. It was weird. He said he was waiting for Houtoshi to show up. It is said that Runa's parents reached out to Houtoshi after hearing about the alleged assault and made a deal with him. You stay out of Runa's life, never contact her again, never contact her again, never talk to her again, and we will stay out of yours.

It's not clear what the repercussions would have been if he broke those said quote rules, but I imagine it would have something to do with getting the police involved. Hotoshi agreed, okay, I'm never gonna contact Runa anymore. But it's again alleged that he broke that promise and allegedly he started coming over to the Runa family home and look, I have no idea if this is true or how he would even know their address.

But allegedly he started showing up uninvited and it put the whole family on edge. They wanted to do something to protect their daughter, their precious baby. So after about a month of this, a month and a half, it seems like the family thought, you know what, we can't keep living like this. We got to do something about it. Like what is he showing up for? They don't say, I mean, we don't even know if he showed up. Okay. So they're saying he's harassing them. Yeah. Okay. On July 1st, 2023, right around 11 p.m.,

two people walked into the love hotel. Hotel Lets. A young woman and an older woman. At first glance, that's what the receptionist is most likely picking up. The young woman was dropped off by someone who appeared to be her father, an old man, met the older woman outside, and the two entered together and checked in.

The young woman was wearing a summary, light colored clothing. The older woman looked like they had just come from a party. They had on this shimmery, nasa crop top, straight styled black bob, nails painted bright red to complete the look. I mean the two did look interesting next to one another, mainly for the age gap, okay. But the receptionist is not here to judge, as long as everyone's legal, what does it matter? The receptionist checks them in, hands them their hotel key, in motions. That way is the elevator. We don't know exactly what happened in there, but judging by the crime scene and the timeline, we can kind of piece together a series of events.

And this is all still speculation as of right now. The two, Hitochi and Runa went into the hotel room and Runa was somehow able to get Hitochi naked. It's likely that she told him that she had a special surprise for him, wanted him to get into the bathtub and wait for her. It's also speculated that she might have blindfolded him and handcuffed him, telling him that it was for some sort of fantasy that she had. Then she presumably ran back out into the pink room,

changed into a raincoat, a raincoat. Squeeze to her hands into a pair of rubber gloves, and now that she was dressed for the occasion, she took a knife, went into the bathroom. She stabbed him multiple times, primarily on his neck area. Did she bring a knife? Yes. She brought a suitcase full of stuff. Hoto, she fell into the tub bleeding profusely. Runa used this opportunity allegedly to, if she hadn't already, handcuff him behind his back and stab him some more. Once he was dead, she would start removing his head.

From there, it's theorized that Runa starts cleaning up all the blood and she is meticulous about this. There was not a speck of blood left behind. And then she takes his phone, ID, close, and his head in the suitcase with her. At 2am, so approximately three hours after initially checking in, Runa comes back down to the front desk, but this time she's not seen wearing light-colored clothes. She's seen in new clothes, all black. She's got on a blonde wig and a black fedora on. She returns her key to the front desk and tells her, thanks, I'm going to head out first. The receptionist nods and watches as she's rolling out her suitcase and gets into a car that was waiting out in front for her. It was the same man that dropped her off just three hours ago, it was Runa's dad. He was going to be driving his daughter to a club. So she could party. While a suitcase with a

decapitated head sat in his trunk. Wow. So I guess the question here is like, does the dad know right? Wow. Dr. Tamura and Runa never got rid of Hatochi's head. They went home and put his head in their bathtub. So he knows, he knows about the head. I mean, he might try to argue that he found out after the fact, but he knows about the head. Yeah.

Yeah. Now, a big part of this case, or at least the online discourse, is about an alleged video of said head in the bathtub Allegedly, there is a video that police have found that shows Runa playing with the decomposing head She was allegedly poking at the eyeball, squishing the eyeball around swirling it around in the eye socket and even squeezing it and Allegedly this video was filmed by her dad squeezing it. And allegedly this video was filmed by her dad. There are other reports that state that there's also a video from inside the hotel room from when the murder

actually took place. It's alleged that the video shows Runa holding a knife in her hand and attacking Hatochi from behind. It's believed that she set up a camera to record the actual murder. These were all later found in the Tamara Household, which side note, the house has been dubbed by the press as the garbage mansion. So it does seem like after this murder, after the head being in this family bathtub for three whole weeks, that's how long it was in there. There was a shift in the energy in the house.

The family was starting. Well, you're saying they didn't catch them for three weeks? Three weeks. Oh. I mean, they were starting to show signs that something was not right. Even as a psychiatrist, I guess it's something that you can't hide well. A lot of therapists stated disorderly home disorderly mind. Neighbors started noticing within those three weeks that trash started piling up outside the house.

Boxes were just thrown in the front lawn. Like imagine opening up a package, throwing out your box onto the front lawn. You don't even break it down, don't even recycle it, just throw it out. The interior of the house became some sort of hoarders, paradise, there were boxes stacked up to the ceiling. It hasn't been explicitly revealed yet,

how the police were able to track a Toshis murder to the Tamura family. But I can't imagine that it was that difficult. You know, I don't think Runa had the greatest undercover disguise. And once they searched that whole family home, every single person in there was arrested. The sweet gray haired older Japanese man that you could pass on any street in Japan and think, you know what, that guy looks nice. Dr. Tamura, he was arrested. His wife arrested.

Oh, the wife was in the house too? The wife was in the house and there was a head in the bathtub. So she knew about this? Yeah, she knew. I mean, that head was decomposing and it was very smelly. The thing is, it seems really clearly in my personal opinion that Runa murdered Hatochi. And it seems to me that her dad was in on it.

He helped her, he dropped her off at the motel, picked her back up, and I think that her mom most likely had the least involvement, but we can't say for certain if she even knew about the crime before it happened, or they just walked in through the front door with a head in a suitcase and now she's got a deal with it. We don't really know. But it's clear that she knew about the head in the bathtub. Thankfully all three of them would be arrested for murder. And if the head in the tub was not a slam dunk on this arrest, there was more evidence

uncovered. The day of the murder, Runa and her father went to a nearby store to purchase a few items that are interesting to say the least. She bought a whole blonde wig, toy handcuffs, a knife, saw, raincoat, and a suitcase. Wow. The raincoat signal to the police that this is clearly a meticulously planned murder. They thought that she wore it so that there wouldn't be as much blood spotter on her own clothing. It would be easier for cleanup.

It's just so interesting. From the club dancing,, the dows watching, you know, going to buy all this stuff, the dows there, sending the daughter to the motel the dows doing, like, what is that? That's... It goes against parents' psychology to want to protect your child. It doesn't make sense. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know if he's like the follower or he's directing anything in the back. I don't know who's in charge here. So there's going to be theories that I'm going to cover where it just each different variation is different and it just gets darker. So Runa had brought gloves to the love motel as well so that she would leave no fingerprints. She brought a change of clothes and the wig was maybe her tempted not being recognized by hotel security footage or CCTV cameras out on the street. Another interesting purchase was shortly after the murder, Dr. Tamara goes to buy 10 bags of ice. It's speculated that he wanted to fill the bathtub with the ice and place the head on top.

They also took into evidence the now blood soaked raincoat that was never thrown away. The blonde wig, 20 knives and 4 saws. She brought 20 knives. I don't know if she brought all 20 to the crime scene, but there were 20 knives. When police asked Dr. Tamura why there were so many knives in this house because I'm assuming these aren't just regular kitchen knives, he said, my daughter just loves collecting knives as a hobby, it's not something weird, she was cutting tree branches outside the house.

He said the saws were for runes crafting hobby of making trinkets for her dolls. The police also found Hitoshi's ID, clothes, and wallet in the garbage mansion. And all three of the family members had looked up, Suisei Kino murder, as if they were keeping an eye on this case that was unfolding. So that's what the case is called in Japan. So they're googling it. I mean, there is so much to this case that just doesn't make sense. Like why did Runa clean up the blood in the love hotel if she knew that she was going

to be leaving a bloody headless body behind? Because it doesn't make sense, I imagine that you would clean up the blood if you're also going to be taking the body so you don't want anyone to know that there was a crime scene. Why did she change into a blonde wig and go to the club after? Is she trying to create some sort of weird alibi? Is she trying to get away with it? Or is this more for fun?

And I think one of the most interesting questions is what is Runa's relationship with her dad? Who has more power in this dynamic? Who's in control? Let's quickly get into all of the theories on why Runa killed Hatochi. I mean, I think it's such an unhinged crime. Netizens are having a really hard time wrapping their heads around it.

So, these are the theories that they came up with. Theory number one. Hatochi assaulted Runa, and this was a revenge kill. Now, quick disclaimer, many netizens have pointed out that even if this theory is true, it still does not justify murder, and especially not in the gruesome, brutal, terrifying way that Runa murdered Hatochi. One of Hatochi's friends did come out and state that Hatochi would go out

wearing more feminine clothing and sometimes at these bars or clubs, he would get a little too close to the other girls there. Allegedly, sometimes he would go in and try to lean in for a kiss or try to get their personal information and there were a few times where some of the girls were bothered by this.

Again, this is all a rumor, but some of his acquaintances also believe that Hitochi would dress more like a woman by society standards so he could lure in young women to the hotel, let their guards down and then take advantage of them. Runa's grandfather is adamant that this is what happened. He even said Runa would only let her guard down at the club the first night they met because she thought that he was an older woman. And that's why she was willing to go to a love motel with him. She's a very reclusive person, she keeps to herself, she doesn't really like dating

so far from what it seems, is what the grandpa is arguing. And it just seemed like she was making a friend. After Hatochi allegedly assaulted Runa in the love hotel, he continued to stalk and harass her. This is what grandpa is alleging. Now the theory suggests that he threatened to blackmail her with a video of the assault. Maybe he kept coming over to the house unannounced to scare her, threaten her, ask for money. Which could explain some of Dr. Tamura's behavior? Like sitting outside his car, looking like he's waiting for someone, like he's stationed

on the lookout. Maybe the family decided that they can't live with this type of paranoia anymore, and even if they went to the police, maybe they think, you know what, we've seen cases like this before, we don't have too much evidence, the police aren't going to do anything about it. So they handled the situation themselves. They got rid of the phone because maybe the video of the assault was on his phone. Now if this theory is true,

Hitoshi should have faced consequences for his actions. If this is true, maybe Runa was a victim at one point or was victimized first, but murder obviously isn't the way, especially in this really cruel manner. Theory Number 2 is the total opposite. Runa was obsessed with Hatochi and he was not returning her love. A lot of this theory is upheld by the video of them at the club the first night they met. It does seem like Runa is a lot more interested in Hitoshi than he is in her.

Perhaps after spending the first night together, she wanted more, but he's a married man who's only looking for a one night stand. She's furious, becomes obsessive, creates this whole storyline for her parents to give her sympathy and attention and maybe even get their help in murdering Hatochi. Maybe her parents had a completely different story in their head. Some netizens were saying that this just makes more sense because if Hatochi was stalking her blackmailing her like the family claims There must have been other women that he had done this too. Like you don't just randomly wake up and you're like

I'm gonna blackmail someone with a video of their assault. It's usually a pattern of behavior. This is how they make money. This is what they get off on, right? Or maybe there had to be some sort of evidence, paper trail, digital communications left behind. But there is so far, at least known to the public nothing. Theory number three. Runa has disassociative personality disorder and had a mental breakdown. I personally don't like this theory and the only reason it exists is not because people are trying to stigmatize mental health, but because Runa literally stated in an interview that an alternate personality of hers caused her to kill.

Yeah. So whether or not these are words to try and push the blame off of herself, it's unclear. But the part that gets me about this is, let's say she did have some sort of personality disorder. Her dad is a psychiatrist. Even if he wasn't, parents would stop their children from doing something like this. They wouldn't help them.

And that's where we get into theory number four, the pleasure kill theory. A lot of netizens believe Runa and Dr. Tamura wanted to kill for pleasure. Wanted to experience it, the thrill, the rush, the adrenaline, as dad and daughter. The reason is, I mean so much of the case just doesn't make sense, so first of all, why did Runa clean the blood at the crime scene? After killing someone, I mean I hope this is not like a relatable feeling for anyone listening, but I would imagine

if we really had to put ourselves in that situation, the first instinct is to wanna get out of there, separate yourself as much as possible from that crime scene. But instead, Runa stuck around to clean the blood. She was already wearing a raincoat and gloves. She didn't need to clean the blood off of her own body unless she herself maybe ended up bleeding somehow that night. I just don't understand why she would spend extra time potentially hours at the crime scene cleaning up the blood. It's one thing,

like I said, if she planned on taking all of the evidence with her, including Hitoshi's body, then it's like, oh, okay, maybe she doesn't want anyone to know that a crime took place here. But if you're leaving a full decapitated body in the tub, I mean the the jig is up. Another big question mark is, why did she decapitate him and take his head? So at first I was thinking, maybe she wanted to make the body hard-tidy. Fingerprints are easier. And again, it's not like she buried his body in the woods where it would decompose for a while.

It felt like there was a more twisted reason for her taking his head. And the alleged video of her playing with his eyeballs could further bolster that part of the theory. Asaikaitra said, the head has been a symbol of victory and trophy since the ancient times. You know, to take someone's head after killing them is a different behavior.

It's much, much different from having a grudge against someone of over love or money and getting revenge on them. This is a tendency towards extreme sadism. So if she took the head for pleasure, the psychiatrist is saying, I don't think that she killed for revenge then. And side note, netizens are bringing up her doll trinket making hobby.

They wonder if a 29 year old being that into dolls has something to do with some sort of sick fascination with the human body. And that could also plan to why she was playing around with the eyeballs, and it leads into the two of them wanted to do this. They wanted a pleasure kill. Another big thing Nettison's bring up is how was Runa able to skillfully be headed to Shih if she had no prior experience? I mean, as far as we know, she hasn't killed anyone before.

But the way that she be headed him cleaned up the crime scene in such a short amount of time, just three hours inside of a motel room, not even in the middle of an isolated cabin in a motel room. A lot of netizens said it felt a lot more consistent with someone who had killed before. They also wondered if, you know how she was cutting tree branches with all the knives outside. Was that her practicing? And the fact that her dad took her to the club right after the murder. Again, we don't know if this is her very sad attempt at creating some sort of alibi, but it feels a bit like a celebration, doesn't it?

I mean, how can she even act normal at a club after this? I imagine if it's a revenge kill or a self-defense kill, right? You don't even want to go to the club because there's so many moments where your mask is going to come down and people are going to notice something is very wrong with you. You're distraught, you're having a panic attack, and there's so many eyes. Now, the pleasure kill theory is not perfect though. It still leaves a lot of big unanswered questions. Like, did Runa want to experience the pleasure in killing and her dad was just supporting her?

Did her dad want to experience the pleasure in killing and her dad was just supporting her? Did her dad want to experience the pleasure kill through his daughter and he encouraged her to do it? Or was this a mutual thing? Were both dad and daughter wanted to bond and quote, kill together? So then of course, we've got theory number four, which is daddy made me do it. Some netizens believe that it's possible. Dr. Tamara was the mastermind of all of this,

and he used her mental health to his advantage to manipulate her into committing this crime. The whole theory is a bit more sick and twisted, but their relationship is just so strange. A criminal psychologist believes that the two, dad and daughter, had a toxic relationship. They said he always keeps her under a supervision and creates an environment where he's always there if something happens. It ends up creating this really weird dynamic where the

two are completely dependent on each other emotionally, mentally. The psychiatrist theorizes that Dr. Tamura was overprotective of his daughter, which would lead her to being super dependent and ultimately just deprived of a normal life. I mean, even the fact that he took his daughter to the dance club and stood there watching her dance pretty intimately with another person, and stood there while holding her jacket, it's just kind of weird. On both sides, it's weird that he did that, but Runa is 29. So it's not like her first time going to the club experience. It's not like her first time going to the club after turning legal. It's just weird.

And at least in my personal opinion, I think it's so weird that Runa is willing and so okay with being that affectionate in front of her dad. And maybe it's different in Western cultures, but I feel like Japan and Korea are very similar in terms of conservativeness. I feel like I would die. I would just be so uncomfortable even hugging my husband like that in front of my dad, especially in a club setting. Yeah, and I think, you know, since the dad is a psychiatrist, right? He obviously knows what causes certain behavior. So the fact that he obviously knows if this is not normal, right? So he obviously knows what causes certain behavior. So the fact that he obviously knows if this is not normal, right? So he obviously knows there's some things off and he's still doing it.

So it's just even more second twisted because he knows the reason at what's causing this behavior and what's leading to what? Like that's just so messed up. So the theory continues that he had been grooming her ever since she was a child. Now, maybe not in the way that that word is usually used, but grooming her to be fully dependent on him. Because he knows that every, every action he's doing is making her more and more dependent on him. You know, clearly her upbringing wasn't normal by any means. I mean, just all the things that happened with her threatening her other classmates with knives as like a fifth grader, that's alarming. And now that she's 29 and seemingly growing up, one of the theories is, perhaps she wants to go clubbing,

perhaps she wants to go out and experience these new things and kind of spread her wings and he feels like I need to do something to keep her under my wing and that could be killing someone together. If he could convince her that she needed to do this, she would always need his mental and emotional support. She would forever be bound to her father and potentially mentally messed up to the point where she retreats from society once again. Oh my god, I don't even know what to say. That would be beyond. Yeah, so that's a theory. Because I think the reason that a lot of netizens have come to this theory is even just

her child how does soap is are. The fact that she had so many behavioral issues and he was adamant on treating her himself. Some other sub theories of this one I saw floating around was Dr. Tamura was treating Runa more like an experiment, wanting to see if he could turn her into a killer and see if he could, quote, fix her after the kill. That he wanted to study how she breaks down after a kill, things of that nature. Again, we don't have proof of any of these theories, just speculations here. Other netizens speculated that Dr. Tamura just wants the courts to think that he's a mastermind.

Maybe he knew nothing. Maybe he knew nothing. He was just dropping off his daughter picking her back up. Or maybe he knew nothing would stop Runa from killing Hatochi. He couldn't turn her in. He couldn't admit her for whatever reason. I mean, I think he should have. That's the case. But he didn't want to. And now he just had to do whatever he could afterwards

to try and make sure that she wasn't caught. I don't know. Evidence that supports this theory is Runa's mom was in prison and on a call with a relative. She allegedly said, I wanted to stop Runa, but couldn't. The family attorney would later review that statement and say that never happened. But, Dr. Tamura would actually go on to publicly state that he had nothing to do with the murder after spending a little bit in jail. He's like, actually, my daughter did it alone. So that theory kind of died off. Yeah. Look, the theories are controversial, they're wild.

I mean, Japanese netizens are very split on how to feel about some of this news. A lot of netizens were just sad that a life was taken in such a gruesome way, and they want to be careful of making any judgments about Hitochi because we really don't know. We really don't know if he was just truly someone experimenting with his style that wanted to be himself at night and go to these clubs. We don't know if he was a predator. And like that's a crazy label to put on someone without having more proof. But other netizens thought the allegations against her toasty were really bad. They're saying, you know, it's one thing if it just came from Rune's grandparents, but there were some of Hatoji's acquaintances that came out and said, little things here

and there that kind of bolstered that specific theory. So a lot of the hardcore, more extreme netizen said that he deserved it, which is a pretty controversial thing to say. Others said, even if he didn't assault Runa, the fact that he had a wife and kids but always went out to meet other women is a bad sign. One night is then just tried to remain neutral and said, I feel sorry for the victim and the person that found the body. So far these are all the developing theories and these are all the updates that we have right now in this case. The trial is set to start sometime next year. They're in the whole family. They're in holding until February of 2024, which is when I believe they're going to have

a full mental evaluation. Yeah. If the family is convicted, it seems Mrs. Tamura will be facing three years in prison for abandoning a corpse. Investigators are the least concerned about Mrs. Tamura, it seems. I mean, I think everyone kind of agrees that she most likely didn't know about the murder is the vibe I'm getting from all the netizens. And Runa is facing a 20-year sentence since she's the one that carried out the actual murder. That's it.

That's it. Oh wow. Whereas Dr. Tamura is only facing 10 years if he is found guilty of being an accessory to murder, but if he's viewed as the mastermind of all of this, he could get 23 years, which honestly, these are wildly short jail times. And the case just blew up in Japan. I mean, for a number of reasons. So firstly, there's not a lot of murders in Japan. In 2021, how many murders do you think happened in Japan, the whole country?

I don't know. I need, I guess a... 285. In 2021 in the US there were 22,900 murders. So in Japan it seems like every single murder, you know, makes headlines, especially when the murder victim's body was found in a love motel bathroom, decapitated. And secondly, this one I think is probably the darkest, but allegedly, it's a psychiatrist and his daughter that killed someone. A lot of netizens felt like this whole thing is so eerie. I mean, this is someone who gives advice and guides people in life. And now he's allegedly killing someone with his daughter of all people? Even if he himself wants to kill someone, you would imagine that the first parental instinct is to protect your kids. His colleague said, Dr. Tamura had a great reputation. I mean, patients and hospital staff loved him.

Nobody ever said anything bad about this guy. He would hold seminars to talk about societal problems in Japan. He said, when people these days in Japan are depressed or they're anxious, it's not a vague problem, it's not an individual problem, it's society's problem because people are overworked, they're losing hope, they're stressed out. In order to fix the collective mental health and citizens, society needs to be fixed. Like these are messages that you and I could probably get behind. Psychiatrists who work with Dr. Tamura said, I mean, we are trained to analyze behaviors, emotions, see behind the facades, look at hidden body language at times.

No none of us suspected this. Dr. Tamura was warm, nice, compassionate. I mean, not a single person from the department saw this coming. So he was hiding the sight of himself very, very well. Even after his arrest and this bizarre crime comes to light, he said with his full trust, I'm a psychiatrist. I have no history of mental illness. There's also a fascinating quote from Dr.

Tamura's online blog from 24 years ago. He wrote, from the moment you kill, you are no longer human. You become a monster. What are your thoughts on this case? I mean, let me know in the comments. There's so many theories This is one of those cases where I just don't understand. I don't even understand the clear motive Yeah, let me know in the comments. Please stay safe. I will see you guys on Sunday for the many so bye