The family of the deceased who cherished every moment of his life”…The family of the deceased sent a message to the crime scene: “Life in debt of the suspect in the Nagano triple murder case.

The following message was posted on the wall at the scene of the incident.

We hope that somewhere you will remember the deceased, who met a good match and lived a short life, cherishing every moment of it.

These were the words posted by the bereaved family of Mr. A, a 49-year-old male office worker who was killed in a street attack in front of JR Nagano Station.

C’mon!

Help!

It was around 8 p.m. on January 22 when the bus stop at the Zenkoji Exit of Nagano Station was filled with the screams of people. A man with a knife silently killed and injured three men and women, including a woman, who were waiting for the bus. Mr. A was stabbed in the chest and died in the incident.

The murderer fled the scene with the knife in his hand. On the morning of January 26, four days after the incident, Yusuke Yaguchi, 46, the suspect believed to be the perpetrator, was taken into custody by the Nagano Prefectural Police on suspicion of attempted murder. The suspect’s escape from Nagano Station to his apartment was traced through a “relay investigation” that connected multiple security camera images. He must have feared that he would be identified from the publicly available camera footage. The beard he had immediately after the incident had been shaved, and his long hair had been shortened.

The camera was covered with demand letters for debts.

The three people who were stabbed were not acquainted with the Yaguchi suspect. Why did Yaguchi commit this indiscriminate crime?

Yaguchi left local elementary and junior high schools, and after graduating from high school, he went on to a science university in Tokyo. As a child, he was a member of the basketball club and had a cheerful personality. However, he moved from job to job in the Kanto area, and his life took a dark turn when he returned to his hometown more than a decade ago.

It is said that he was suffering from a considerable amount of debt. The mailbox at the apartment where Yaguchi lives is littered with letters demanding payment of debts. He must have been mentally trapped. He sometimes shouted unintelligible words and got into trouble with neighbors. Frustration with life not going the way he wanted may have been the trigger for his crime.

No matter how hard his life was, it was no justification for committing the crime. Taihei Ogawa, a former Kanagawa Prefectural Police detective and crime journalist, said.

The fact that he received several demand letters at his home suggests that he was also involved in high-interest black-market money. He may have been unable to borrow money from major banks and other financial institutions, and may not have been able to repay his debts. However, it would be unwise for them to use their frustration as an outlet for killing people they do not know. There must have been a way to recover, such as filing for bankruptcy.

Yaguchi is said to have remained silent about the incident, even though he agreed to talk with the interrogators. One wonders what Yaguchi feels when he hears the message from the bereaved family, as mentioned at the beginning of this article.