Tetsuyuki Morikawa

Around 1958, the then 27-year-old Morikawa settled down in his hometown of Kumamoto, where he soon started courting a woman, known only by the alias 'X'.[4] The pair married in January 1959 and moved into a new home built by Morikawa's parents-in-law, and the following year, the couple had two sons born one after the other.[5] At the beginning of his marriage, Morikawa made a living by selling seaweed, but after the birth of his eldest son, he became addicted to gambling, refused to work and spent most of the day drinking shōchū.[5] Around this time, he started pawning his wife's belongings to continue with his lavish expenses, in addition to assaulting, beating and burning her with cigarettes.[6] On one occasion, it was even claimed that he struck her on the arms with a hatchet so deeply that it reached the bones, and had on another occasion he help up a knife against her neck.[6]

In spite of the excessive abuse, Morikawa's wife endured, consulting his aunt and uncle about his worsening behavior. One night shortly after the birth of their second son, Morikawa threw his wife and eldest son into a stream behind the house in the middle of the winter, stomping on her head when she tried to get back up.[7] This event triggered his father-in-law to attempt to divorce the pair out of fear that X would be killed.[7] X herself, who could not withstand the abuse any longer, divorced him in the summer of 1962, entrusting their children to Morikawa's brother and his wife, while she moved to the city of Ube in Yamaguchi Prefecture.[7] Shortly afterwards, however, Morikawa located her, forcing X to move back to Kumamoto and attempt to reconcile with her ex-husband with the help of his aunt and uncle.

On December 8, 1976, Morikawa was granted parole after serving 14 years of his sentence and was released from prison.[14] As it was legally required that he supervised by a relative, he moved back to his aunt and uncle's house, but refused to get a job and spent most of his time drinking.[14] Due to this, his aunt began to scold him, but this resulted in Morikawa physically assaulting both her and her husband. When his older brother decided to intervene, Morikawa threw eggs at him.[15]

On the early morning of June 21, 1978, Morikawa got into an argument with his aunt and uncle.[16] In the heat of the moment, he grabbed a sashimi knife and attempted to stab them, but the couple managed to escape unscathed.[17] They then contacted his brother, who in turn called the Prefectural Police, resulting in Morikawa's arrest.[16] As he had violated the conditions of his parole, he was sent back to the Kumamoto Prison, where he began to harbor a deep grudge against those he had perceived as having 'wronged' him. At one point, he decided that if he was ever released again, he would dedicate his life to take revenge on them.[17]

On February 1, 1984, the 53-year-old Morikawa was granted parole yet again.[18] This time, he was placed under the supervision of a probation facility in Kitakyushu, where he was obliged to take on a job at a construction site.[18] While he worked hard and had a steady wage, Morikawa secretly began to plan his second murder.[18]

While living in the probation facility, Morikawa began to devise a murder plan, making a hit list starting with his ex-wife that went down to his in-laws. He wrote down their addresses and names in a notebook and began planning the attack in meticulous detail, ranging from how he would carry out to how much funds he would need to escape afterwards.[18] Reportedly, his hit list was eventually expanded to more than 30 targets, including the judge who had originally sentenced him and the passer-by who had intervened.[19]

Morikawa secretly stashed 150,000 yen behind his probation officer's back, and on May 31, 1985, he escaped the facility without permission. He then got on a train from Kumamoto Station and went to his brother's house, where he managed to convince him that he was a changed man and wanted to find a job.[20] A few days later, unbeknownst to his brother, Morikawa phoned officials at the facility and falsely claimed that his brother had offered to supervise him instead, which was readily accepted.[21]

From there, Morikawa attempted to locate his ex-wife and her relatives while concealing his identity, but had trouble finding her address.[22] Eventually, he attempted to ask her aunt while pretending to be someone else, but the woman, who had heard of his recent parole and was very suspicious, refused to tell him where she was.[23]

Despite his failure to find his ex-wife, Morikawa decided not to give up on his plans.[24] For the time being, he stayed at a snack bar instead of returning to his brother's house.[24] Since he was unable to locate X, Morikawa decided to kill his other intended targets first, steal their money and secure enough funds to continue his mission.[25]

On July 22, Morikawa left his brother's house with a flashlight and portable radio and went to a local hardware store, from where he wanted to buy a knife, claiming to the clerk that he needed it to handle some eels.[8] He bought a sashimi knife with a length of 20 cm and a stitching awl, from where his ex-wife's aunt's house.[26] His attempt to enter was cut short when a neighborhood dog began barking at him, prompting him to abandon the idea and instead travel to the house of 'A', the 65-year-old wife of X's uncle.[26] At around 21:00, he arrived near the location and spent about an hour at a restaurant before heading to her house and demanding that the woman tell him where his ex-wife was. In response, A replied that it was late and locked the window.[27] Angered, Morikawa decided to throw a stone at the window, but gave up on the idea and instead searched for an unlocked gate to enter through.[27] After failing to find one, he spent the night in a storeroom before returning to the snack bar he had previously stayed at.[27]

The following day, Morikawa left the snack bar at night, claiming that he was going to collect some money.[27] He went back to X's aunt's house, but as she was not at home, he again went to A's house. Upon reaching his destination, he looked through a window and confirmed that both A and her adopted daughter, 22-year-old 'B', were inside. He then waited for the two women to fall asleep and hid in the storeroom, but accidentally fell asleep as he had drunk copious amounts of alcohol.[27] When he awoke early in the morning, Morikawa wrapped up a stone in some cloth in order to prevent any potential noise and looked for a way in.[28] After confirming that the outdoor unit of the air conditioner was not locked, he put the stone under it and climbed inside.

When he got in, Morikawa pulled out his sashimi knife and headed for the tatami mat room, where he found A and B sleeping side by side.[28] He approached the pair, and when A woke up to ask who was there, he threatened her at knifepoint to tell her where X was, or otherwise he would kill her.[29] When she replied that she did not know, Morikawa stabbed her in the chest, awakening B in the process.[30] When she noticed that he was there, he began yelling at her before stabbing her twice in the chest.[30] B attempted to run away, only to get stabbed twice more, but still managed to get into the adjacent room, where the phone was located. During that time, Morikawa finished off A by stabbing her in the chest and throat a total of 41 times, before turning his attention to B. Upon reaching her, he stabbed her 35 times in the back, sides, chest and hips before dragging her back to her adopted mother.[31] He then put the earpiece back on the phone, and cut off the cable to make sure it was not connected anymore.[31] Both women died from blood loss as a result of punctures in the heart, both lungs, and carotid artery.[32]

Apparently dissatisfied with simply stabbing the bodies, Morikawa stripped both of his victims naked and attempted hang their bodies in the room using a belt from A's yukata.[33] However, he slipped due to the amount of blood on his feet and eventually gave up on the idea. Morikawa then washed his clothes in the bathroom and let them dry by absorbing the moisture.[34] Afterwards, he stole 686,000 yen and A's watch, sapphire ring, two reading glasses and a bag.[35] He then escaped through the way he came in.[36]

From there, he walked away from the house, transferred some of the valuables to his own bag and threw A's bag into the river. He then took a taxi to Jōnan, and walked on foot back to the snack bar.[37] On the following day, Morikawa gifted the watch and sapphire ring to the two hostesses.[38] However, as the reports of the double murder began to appear on the news, he panicked and invited the two women to flee with him, but they turned him down. Morikawa then left Kumamoto and traveled further north, hiding out in a hot spring resort.[39]

On July 24, two employees who worked at A's stone crushing company became suspicious of her absence and went to her house to investigate. They noticed that her moped was still parked in the garage and decided to ring the bell, but received no response.[40] They then went to the back yard, noticing that some lights had been turned on unnaturally and one window (the one Morikawa went through) was open. After receiving no response again, one of the employees entered through the window in order to investigate, only to find red blood stains on the floor leading to the tatami mat room.[41] After slipping and falling on the trail, he got up and went to the room, where he found the two women's bodies. Shocked by the discovery, he alerted his colleague and both of them soon called the Kumamoto Prefectural Police.[40]

An investigation of the crime scene revealed no potential murder weapons, but autopsies on the victims' bodies confirmed that A and B had been stabbed to death with a sashimi knife.[32]