Crime & Courts

Seized Video ‘Shows Bathroom Attack’ in Northern Japan Decapitation Case

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Investigators enter the family home of three murder suspects in Atsubetsu Ward, Sapporo, in July.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:58 JST, August 15, 2023

SAPPORO — A video seized by police in connection with a beheading case in Sapporo shows a man being attacked in a hotel bathroom in the city, according to investigative sources.

The Hokkaido prefectural police believe the video was filmed by unemployed Runa Tamura, 29, of the city’s Atsubetsu Ward, and are investigating her and her parents’ possible involvement and motives.

Runa and her father, Osamu, 59, a doctor in the city, and mother, Hiroko, 60, a part-time employee, have all been arrested on suspicion of murdering the 62-year-old man, who was found decapitated in the hotel room in the city’s Susukino entertainment district in early July.

According to the sources, the video shows a person attacking a man with a knifelike, bladed object in a hotel bathroom.

The police suspect Runa killed the man while simultaneously filming the event.

All three suspects have refused to answer questions, the sources said.