[The Murder of a Third-Grade Girl in Matsudo] “To Make My Daughter’s Dream Come True”… We Traced the Whereabouts of the Victim’s Family, Who Vanished Without a Trace

The YouTube channel “Voices in the Shadows” conducts original interviews with the “nameless people” directly involved in incidents and accidents that are never reported by newspapers or television, and releases them as short documentaries.

Here, we present a transcript—with some editing—of a video released last month on the channel that traces the “aftermath” of the 2017 “Matsudo Third-Grade Girl Murder Case” for the victim’s family. After the incident, the family, who had been running a restaurant in Chiba, suddenly vanished. This documentary follows their trail.

To a Hot Spring Resort Deep in the Mountains of Fukushima Prefecture

The signs of autumn are slowly descending upon the mountain roads. We headed to this area for our investigation and to reunite with them for the first time in several years.

It’s about an hour’s drive from Fukushima City. Dake Onsen, located at the foot of Mount Adatara in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture. In this place, long known as a hot spring resort, there stands a sign that looks a little different from the typical scenery of a tourist destination.

“RB Hotel”

The person running this place is Mr. Hao, originally from Vietnam. He is also someone we have been following in our reporting. Mr. Hao explains the origin of the hotel’s name.

“RB stands for ‘rebirth’ in English. In Japanese, it means ‘rebirth.’ It embodies my hope that people will be reborn and return to this world once more.”

“Once again.” Behind those words lies the person Hao has in mind: his beloved daughter, Lin.

In a video Hao posted on social media, a young girl smiles and looks straight at the camera. The one filming was her father, Hao. In her elementary school yearbook, Lin wrote that her dream for the future was “to become a bridge connecting Japan and Vietnam.” If she were still alive, Lin would have been old enough to start college this spring.

In 2017, in Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture, Lin went missing on her way to school. Two days later, her body was found in the neighboring city of Abiko. This was the “Matsudo Third-Grade Girl Murder Case.”

The person indicted for murder and other charges was Inmate S (then 46), who was the president of the PTA at the elementary school Lin attended at the time.In 2022, his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court, and his life sentence was finalized. However, S, who maintained his innocence, never spoke about the motive or circumstances of the crime.

Prompted by this case, we have continued to interview Ms. Hao. After the incident, Ms. Hao’s family had the option of returning to Vietnam. Yet they chose to remain in Japan… to fulfill their daughter’s dream.

Around the time S’s trial concluded, Mr. Hao and his family opened a Vietnamese restaurant in Chiba. That was also around the time we first featured them on this channel. When we visited the restaurant in May 2021, Mr. Hao shared a memory related to a particular dish.

“Lin-chan and her mother used to make spring rolls for us often. We’d make them together and eat them at home.”

That restaurant is a place where family memories remain. It was also a place filled with Rin-chan’s dreams. Hao-san said this:

“Lin had something she really wanted to do: introduce Vietnamese cuisine and culture to Japan. So, as something I can do from now on, I want to carry out what Lin wanted to do and show her the sights she wanted to see. It is precisely because of that feeling that I opened this restaurant.”

“I want to be a bridge between Japan and Vietnam.”

In the restaurant, the dream Lin-chan left behind lived on as the family’s choice—

Four years have passed since that interview. After our interview, Hao-san said, “I will refrain from responding to media inquiries regarding the incident.” Even so, we were curious about what happened afterward.

Then, one day, the shop’s lights went out.

At the site in Abiko City, Chiba Prefecture, where Lin’s body was found, a cherry-blossom-colored shrine built by Mr. Hao and his family remains. Rain or shine, no matter how hot it was, Mr. Hao visited this shrine every month. But eventually, no new flowers were placed there anymore.

Weighing heavily on us were Mr. Hao’s words as a bereaved family member —“I want this to be the last interview about Lin-chan” —but we decided to contact him again.

It took several days for a reply to come. He must have been struggling with whether to agree to the interview. But Hao readily agreed. “I’m living in Fukushima Prefecture now, so it’s a long way—is that okay? ”

A Place Where Families Can Start Over

The Hao family currently lives in the mountains of Fukushima Prefecture. They run a hotel with hot springs and a Vietnamese restaurant. Along a road known as Takegai-dōri, there was a sign displaying familiar photos of menu items.

“It used to be a traditional inn, but we renovated and repaired it to turn it into a hotel. The construction took about two years,” said Mr. Hao (hereinafter the same).

The guest rooms were remodeled into Western-style rooms, making them more comfortable for international guests. The hotel features an open-air bath and can accommodate up to 60 guests.

“We use 100% natural hot spring water here. It’s completely unprocessed.”

—It’s rare to find a 100% natural hot spring, isn’t it?

“We have Mount Adatara here, with a hot spring at its base, and we’ve piped the water all the way up to here. Some people come just to soak in the hot spring.”

Mr. Hao also spoke about his shop in Chiba Prefecture. He said he had to close it due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The inn is more than 200 km away from the shop in Chiba as the crow flies. He said he now only visits the shrine built at the site where her body was found a few times a year. Yet Rin-chan remains, as always, deep in Hao’s heart.

“At first, I hadn’t planned on running a hotel here. But then there was my daughter’s trial, and various problems arose. So I bought the property, and wanting to do what I could—including fulfilling my daughter’s dream—I opened RB ”

This place, too, serves as a “bridge between Japan and Vietnam” and is a place connected to Lin-chan’s dream.He also revealed the reason for opening the restaurant in Fukushima. He said it was because he saw himself in the people who suddenly lost their “daily lives” in the Great East Japan Earthquake. The reality that they cannot return to normal life after losing their daughter still remains for the family. Even so, Mr. Hao chose to make a life for himself here in Japan.

The spring rolls and mango juice on the hotel restaurant’s menu are items she told me in a previous interview that Lin-chan used to love. She wants this place to be where her family can start walking forward again. That sentiment is poured into every single dish.

“I want this to be a place for exchange between Japan and Vietnam. I want Vietnamese people to come, Japanese people to come, and of course, I want it to be a place for interaction with people from other countries as well. I hope to introduce Vietnamese culture and cuisine.”

Because Takayama Onsen is difficult to reach by public transportation, Mr. Hao reportedly purchased a building in front of Nihonmatsu Station to establish a Vietnamese restaurant and a pickup point for guests. They are currently working on the interior design themselves, bit by bit. They are moving forward, one step at a time, doing whatever they can.

A young girl’s life was suddenly taken from her. Yet her surviving family is trying to carry on her lost dreams in a different form. In the quiet mountain valley of Dake Onsen, their journey continues to this day—