<figure id="attachment_410009" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-410009" style="width: 1317px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e9afbfad"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/c9a6dc09f353cdd2a005d7a4c1e10397.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-410009" class="wp-caption-text">Mr. A&#8217;s bones, dismembered and stripped of flesh, were burned in this drum (from the January 27, &#8217;95 issue).</figcaption></figure>
<p> What did &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; report 10, 20, or 30 years ago? Playback Friday&#8221; takes a look back at topics that were hot at the time. This time, we introduce <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Saitama Aikenke Murder: Another Missing Person&#8221; from</span> the January 27, 1995 issue, which was published 30 years ago.</p>
<p> The &#8220;Saitama Serial Murder of Dog Owners&#8221; case came to light when a wide TV show reported that there were similar missing persons in Saitama Prefecture after the Osaka serial dog lover murders in January 1994. The names in parentheses are from past articles. (Descriptions in parentheses are quotations from past articles. (All ages are current at the time.)</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> The case came to light through the confession of a &#8220;body disposal staff member.</span></h3>
<p> On January 5, 1995, S. (53), a dog and cat breeding and sales businessman, and his ex-wife K. (37) were arrested in Konan Town, Saitama Prefecture. They were suspected of damaging and abandoning the corpse of Mr. A (39 at the time of the incident), a company executive, by burning his body and dumping it in a mountain in Gunma Prefecture. Y was shown Mr. A&#8217;s corpse by S, who threatened to help him if he didn&#8217;t want to end up like him, so he helped dispose of the body.</p>
<p> It is said that Ms. A and S had a dispute over the purchase price of the dog. In addition, a local gang leader, Mr. C (51 at the time of the disappearance), his driver, Mr. D (21), and a housewife, Ms. B (54), were also missing in 1993, the same year that Mr. A was murdered. That is not all. What kind of person was S?</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> After graduating from junior high school, he worked at various jobs, including a ramen store, before opening a pet store in his apartment in the 1970s. Since then, he has continued to buy and sell pets, changing his store several times.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He used to dismantle cows and pigs he bought at a livestock farm for food on top of his truck in front of his store, turning the nearby river red with blood and discarding the heads of cows in his yard.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He&#8217;s a flat out liar and exaggerator. He would yell at customers visiting the pet store, telling them to go home if they didn&#8217;t like him. He also displayed pictures of young men with tattoos and calendars of gangsters in his store as material to threaten people.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Another &quot;case of disappearance&quot; that this magazine was aware of"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">People are easy to kill.&#8221;</span></h3>
<p> S, who also had ties to a gang, had known Mr. B, who is still unknown, for 10 years.</p>
<p> Whenever S had a real estate-related problem, he would ask Ms. B to handle it. It was not long after that Mr. B disappeared from the house. The house was said to have been broken into by a number of people, leaving behind a large number of footprints.</p>
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<p> As this magazine continued its investigations, it learned of another disappearance that may have involved Mr. S.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> A gang leader of a different gang from Mr. B&#8217;s, but which also had an office in northern Saitama Prefecture, had been missing since around 1985. Around that time, S was selling many dogs to fellow gang members in neighboring prefectures. What exactly happened between S, who was trying to expand his business, and the gang leader?</span></p>
<p> It is said that the gang leader, like Mr. B, had a land-related financial problem with S. S had always said, &#8220;I&#8217;m going to kill people.</p>
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<p> S had always said <span class="strongInContent">, &#8220;It&#8217;s easy to kill a person.</span> He would also point to a machine at the breeding farm that made minced beef and other meat, and <span class="strongInContent">say things like, &#8220;If you put a human in this machine, you&#8217;ll never know.</span></p>
<p> Later, it was revealed that the dog lover murders were a series of murders that shook the world.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The full story of the case revealed"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">Investigation is difficult because of the &#8220;serial murders without bodies.</span></h3>
<p> S and K were eventually arrested and charged with the murder and disposal of the bodies of four people, including Mr. A. S&#8217;s modus operandi was to make the victims drink strychnine nitrate, a deadly poison used to kill dogs, as a nutritional supplement, after receiving a prescription from a doctor. The victims were then taken to the mountains of Gunma Prefecture, where Y, the &#8220;body disposal staff,&#8221; lived, and the corpses were dismembered. The organs and flesh were chopped into small pieces and poured into a river, and the bones were incinerated after the flesh was scraped clean.</p>
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<p> The trial was protracted due to the lack of physical evidence, including the body, and the fact that the ex-couple, S and K, vehemently blamed each other for the crime. In March 2001, the Urawa District Court accepted the prosecution&#8217;s argument almost in its entirety and sentenced S and K to death and Y, who was charged with destruction and abandonment of the bodies, to three years in prison.&#8221; In June 2009, the Supreme Court rejected a motion to amend the sentence, and S and K were sentenced to death.</p>
<p> In addition to the gang leader reported by this magazine, a former clerk at a pet store owned by S and a woman who ran a snack bar were also missing around S, even if only reported. Some of these were quite likely to have been involved by S. However, since the bodies were never found, etc., the case was ultimately dropped.</p>
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<p> S died of illness in the Tokyo Detention Center in March 2005, and K was imprisoned in the Tokyo Detention Center as of September 2008, denying any involvement in the murders.</p>
<p> A human being &#8220;erased&#8221; by human hands&#8230;. This case, which has shaken the world, still leaves many mysteries unanswered.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The Saitama dog lover serial murders and the horrified couple who committed the murders."></div>
<figure id="attachment_410011" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-410011" style="width: 2525px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6bd4f1da"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/ce512c44d980d101c7f84e8d3e3ef6d1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-410011" class="wp-caption-text">S before his arrest; according to Y&#8217;s statement, he once said, &#8220;If there&#8217;s an Olympics to kill, I&#8217;m sure to win a gold medal&#8221; (from the Jan. 27, 1995 issue).</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_410012" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-410012" style="width: 2815px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="9cb16c36"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/9060fff62fa27d231151396c9c6cd62a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-410012" class="wp-caption-text"> K, S&#8217;s ex-wife, who divorced him to avoid S&#8217;s tax arrears, but they remained married (from the Jan. 27, 1995 issue).</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_410015" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-410015" style="width: 4293px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f7614a5c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/5288de797039471493eab988b5d56a13.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-410015" class="wp-caption-text"> K was sent to the Tokyo Detention Center in September &#8217;20 after being sentenced to death (from the Jan. 27, &#8217;95 issue).</figcaption></figure>

<figure id="attachment_410013" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-410013" style="width: 4293px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e0567427"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/f53002ebdd7051ad698fe20b09edbf33.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-410013" class="wp-caption-text"> The slope of a mountain in Katashina Village, Gunma Prefecture, where Mr. A&#8217;s incinerated remains were scattered (from the Jan. 27, 1995 issue).</figcaption></figure>


 Masaharu Uemoto, Shuichi Masuda, Tomoyasu Kanazawa

 In this issue of Playback, we look back at what this magazine was reporting 10, 20, and 30 years ago. In this issue, we introduce "The Saitama Serial Murder Case of a Dog Lover. A number of people had disappeared around the couple.

Playback: &#8220;How Many People Have Disappeared?&#8221; Saitama dog lover serial murders: &#8220;Another Disappeared Person&#8221; that this magazine had grasped.

Playback: “How Many People Have Disappeared?” Saitama dog lover serial murders: “Another Disappeared Person” that this magazine had grasped.

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