Murder of a Mito manicurist: “Obsession” of a suspect who planted a transmitter in a stuffed animal… and relentlessly hunted down the victim

A Tragedy on the Evening of New Year’s Eve

On January 22, more than 20 newspapers, TV stations, and other media outlets had crowded the Mito Police Station of the Ibaraki Prefectural Police since early in the morning. Takumi Ouchi, 28, emerged from the station’s wire-enclosed convoy entrance a little after 9:00. His hair was neatly coiffed, giving him a clean-cut look. He did not blink his face at the camera, but walked with a slightly slumped appearance, shaking his shoulders as he got into the convoy car.

Ouchi was arrested on January 21, the day before this incident. He is suspected of murdering Haruka Komatsumoto, 31, a manicurist, in a room of an apartment in Mito City at the end of last year.

The incident was discovered at around 7:15 p.m. on New Year’s Eve last year. When her husband, 27, came home, he found Ms. Komatsumoto lying in a pool of blood at the front door.

They had gone shopping together in the morning, and then her husband went to work. Around 5:00 p.m., Ms. Komatsumoto called her husband to say that she was on her way home, and it is believed that the crime occurred between 5:20 and 7:15 p.m.” (reporter from a national newspaper’s society section)

Ms. Komatsumoto had multiple wounds on her head, as if she had been hit with a blunt instrument, and the stab wound on the right side of her neck reached an artery. She was pregnant and probably protecting her stomach, and there were more than a dozen cuts and bruises on her arms that appeared to have been caused when she resisted. Blood was splattered on the walls, suggesting that the attacker attacked Komatsumoto, who was resisting, with multiple weapons and with strong intent to kill. The cause of death was traumatic shock from a blow to the head and a stab wound to the neck.

It was also revealed that four days prior to the incident, Ms. Komatsumoto had called the police asking where she could go to consult about something like stalking by an ex-boyfriend. Ms. Komatsumoto also asked if they could handle the situation at night. When the police officer responded that he could and asked for her name and contact information, she replied, “I’ll ask later,” and the call ended.

When the police analyzed Komatsumoto’s phone, a suspect from a past relationship, Ouchi, surfaced. What kind of relationship did they have?

Komatsumoto-san used to work at a cabaret club in Mito, and that is where they met. They started dating in ’24 and broke up later that year.’ Around the summer of ’25, he began to press her on social networking sites to get back together and send her bitter messages, so Ms. Komatsumoto apparently blocked him and refused to contact him. Then, Ouchi allegedly went around asking acquaintances about Komatsumoto’s whereabouts.

How was Ouchi able to determine Komatsumoto’s address? The police investigation revealed a surprising method.

The affection was amplified in a distorted way.

When the police examined the stuffed animal in Komatsumoto’s room, they found that it had a ‘loss prevention tag’ embedded in it that sent location information to the suspect’s smartphone. The stuffed toy of the popular character had been delivered to Komatsumoto’s parents’ house a few days before the incident as a “prize winner’s present” in the name of the theme park’s management company, and was later stored at Komatsumoto’s home.

Why was Mr. Ouchi so obsessed with Ms. Komatsumoto? Crime journalist Taihei Ogawa speculates, “He must have felt that strongly about the case.

“Even he knows it is impossible if he thinks about it calmly. Even so, he could not give up hope that he could still make it, so he took action. However, the woman blocked him and he could not get in touch with her. And the woman he was dating until two years ago is now happily married with a different family. As these facts accumulated in his mind, I believe that his love for her was amplified in a distorted way, and he was driven further and further into a corner.

Originally, the victim should have consulted the police with her real name and taken measures to deal with the situation. I don’t know why he asked for the consultation service anonymously, but there must have been some kind of psychology that made him not want to give his name.

The police have a duty of confidentiality, and if you consult with them properly, they will take action. However, it is also true that they are not fully trusted, as exemplified by the Kawasaki case. That is why the police, when consulted, need to put themselves in the victim’s shoes and be sincere.

The suspect, Ouchi, is said to have denied the charges to the interrogation , saying, “I have no facts and know nothing about it. On the other hand, it is known that a car believed to belong to him was caught on security cameras around the apartment around the time of the incident.

Ouchi is said to be well-liked by his friends. Now that Komatsumoto’s happiness and future have been stolen from her, we wonder how he feels about Komatsumoto.