How to Raise a Murderer

[Music]

So before we get started,
this is about a murder

and it’s very graphic and very
disturbing if you’re not into that.

You usually just stop listening right now.

So as we proceed from here,
there’s going to be some gross stuff.

It’s about a man who’s
decapitated and there’s some pretty

graphic details of what
actually happens to the body

because there’s some body
mutilation that comes later.

For those of you who are like,
“Ooh, I want to listen to this.

” Maybe think about
some stuff first.

So back in July, July 3rd,

a corpse was founded a love hotel.

A love hotel in Japan is a place
where people go to participate

and intimate activities
together for short term.

I’ve explained the love hotels before,

but what they are is Japan has
a lot of generational households

where you live with your parents,
parents live with their kids into old age,

so you might actually have
three generations in one house.

It means having intimacy in your
place sometimes isn’t always possible.

So they created this system of hotels

where you can stay for one
hour, two hour, three hours.

It basically paid by the hour

and entertain yourselves with your friends.

So in July 3rd, so July 3rd, staff went
to clean a room and they found a corpse,

but it was a headless corpse
that’s been decapitated.

Three weeks later, a
family of three was arrested

and the head was found in their residence.

So that’s pretty damning evidence

if they actually find the head
of the corpse in your house.

Runa Tamura, who is 30 years
old, who is the daughter of the family,

has been accused of murder, mutilation
of a corpse, and several other crimes.

Those are the two worst ones
that are going to get the most time.

The victim was a 62 year
old cross dressing man.

They met in the red-like
district of Sapporo.

Now, it sounds like they had had
relations multiple times in the past.

The motive of this murder
seems to be anger over

the unprotected sex they
had the previous month.

So it sounds like they
had had sex multiple times.

They had used protection, and
this last time, for some reason,

the guy didn’t use
protection, and Runa was

really angry about it, so
she decided to kill him.

They did an SNM session, where
the man, the victim, was bound,

and once bound was stabbed
in the neck with a folding knife.

Runa then decapitated the body,

and put this head in the
suitcase, and then took it home.

She was picked up by her
father, who is a psychiatrist,

who seems to have known what she did.

Now, what we find out
later is much more dramatic,

because you could actually say,

“Oh, the father didn’t
know what was in the bag.

” So he just picked up his
daughter when she asked for a ride

that makes perfect sense.

Once home, she started to skin the head

and remove the eyes she wanted
her mother to film her doing it.

So now we’ve gotten to
sort of the depths of depravity

that we’re actually
talking about in this story.

It is a lot.

The mother was arrested as an accomplice.

She denies doing this or
any guilt or any involvement.

The reason I started doing
the murder in Japan series

is because when you get the
actual court documents released,

usually this is from
TokyoReporter.

com, which is an
excellent website.

It’s where I get a lot of my news,

or when I get a lot of
stories that I want to

follow up on, they
release court transcripts,

which is a very interesting
insight into the murder itself,

and the actual ongoing of
the Japanese judicial system,

which is something we
don’t get a lot of insight into.

So that’s actually honestly the part I’m
more interested in than the actual murder.

Like the murder is the
impetus for this thing happening,

but I really want the insight in
how the Japanese system works

when they’re actually
prosecuting or crying.

So the first part is about the mother.

So the mother says under oath,

so she takes the stand she’s under oath.

She says I only found out
about the damage to the head

after it was brought into the house.

There’s actually an implication there

that she actually knew that the
head was coming into the house.

It was the damage she
didn’t know about until after.

So it’s not true that I
allowed it to be hidden.

When I found out it was
already in the bathroom.

It was so abnormal that I couldn’t
say anything to my daughter.

I couldn’t blame her. I couldn’t accept it.

And I couldn’t say anything.

This seems sort of reasonable.

It seems sort of reasonable
because she’s essentially saying,

this is so beyond the pale off the chain

that I am just in shock immediately.

I was frozen. I didn’t know what to do.

I was just completely lost.

Runa wanted the mother to
video Runa doing the things

I’m trying to be gentle about.
I’ve already said it.

Runa wanted the mother to video her skinning
and removing the eyes from the head.

Regarding the videotaping, she said,

there’s a difference between carrying
out the videotaping and approving of it.

I wasn’t told what exactly
we were going to film.

I couldn’t bear it, so I asked my husband
to film it out of a desire for help.

I had absolutely no intention
of helping with the crime.

I had no intention of
helping with the desecration.

So she’s saying, look, my
daughter was doing this thing.

She asked me to video it.
I did not approve of the videoing of it.

I actually didn’t video it.
I gave it to my husband.

That doesn’t mean I
approved of what was going on.

But again, she’s kind of
saying she was in shock.

Her basic defense is
that she says she knew,

but she didn’t approve
of what was happening.

Therefore, she is not committed that
any of the crime she’s been accused of.

The father claims he didn’t
know about the murder until

Runa came home with the head,
but he did know about the S&M.

And that’s actually going to be a weird
little twist we hear about in a moment.

Details about the family
dynamic is that basically Runa

ran the house and she was
never punished for anything.

She was essentially sort of
the queen of this little family unit.

In a recording from October 6, 2020,
Runa yells abuse at her father in English

saying things like, “I want to kill you
and why don’t you follow my orders?

” So that actually gives
you already a sense of the

dynamic of what’s
happening in this household.

She’s saying like,
“I give you orders.

There’s an expectation
that you should follow them.

It doesn’t even make
sense to me that you don’t.

” The weird part to me is
that her father is a psychologist.

The father being a psychiatrist,
a psychiatrist, a psychiatrist.

The weird thing is that
her father is a psychiatrist.

He should be vaguely familiar with
the results of actually giving kids,

spoiling them and giving
them free reign, that

this is the kind of
person they grow up into.

But he actually seems to have had some sort
of deficiency and then fallen to this trap

that he has with his own daughter.

Now, there could be some other things
going on, DNA, genetics, who knows.

Like, I mean, there could be the bad gene.

Or it could just be, this is again a
nature versus nurture kind of conversation.

Did they raise her wrong and she
ended up a murderer or does she just like,

born bad and they did
everything they could to try

to make her a nice person
and give her a good life.

And she just like manipulated
all that as she grew up.

We’re actually never going to know.

Runa says in Japanese
on January 22nd, 2023,

“I’m going to get a little
stronger and kill you guys.

” That’s what I’ve always
thought my sister and I.

Now, the sister part is very interesting
because she doesn’t actually have a sister.

That same day, she says,
“I’ll kill everyone. That’s all.

” “Oh, some who responds,
don’t kill, I don’t kill any.

” Runa adds, “You’re not
even taking responsibility.

Just hurry up
and do it. You idiot.

” So this is again, the way she’s
talking to her father and the way her

father’s responding to her tells
you a lot about the relationship.

She says in Japanese
in an apparent reference

to the murder victim
on June 1st, 2023,

the other person thinks that he is
at my mercy, so I made him think that.

But I am the one in control. She goes on.

I thought it would be like a
contest of endurance because

I could pretend to be a
bitch as far as I could go.

But I don’t look like that kind of girl.
Don’t you think?

She’s basically saying, “I
look innocent, I see innocent, so

people don’t assume I’m capable
of this kind of level of violence.

” So then they put the
father on the stand and

the defense starts
questioning the father.

So defense, in one of Runa’s
statements, she said, “My sister, did

she have a sister? The father.
No. The defense. Who is her sister?

” The father says, “Runa. Runa’s
soul.” So when Runa refers to her

sister, she’s almost talking
about another version of herself,

it turns out that when she
talks about Runa’s sister,

she’s talking, that’s when
she sort of switches to English.

So we’re getting kind
of a feeling of a dual

personality thing
going on in the defense.

Who is the subject of the conversation
that says, “I killed my sister?

” The father, I think
Cynthia is the main character.

There are many other souls,
but Cynthia is the main character.

So now he’s talking about
multiple personality disorder.

Defense, who does
Cynthia’s soul want to kill?

The father, me and
Hiroko, the mother.

Cynthia thinks that Runa’s soul
died because of our response.

Defense, have you ever been
harmed by Runa? The father, no.

Defense, did she ever wave a
knife or a kitchen knife around?

The father, not directly at us.

So she has waved a knife
around in the past. The defense.

Regarding the fact that you
were forced to take photos of the

victim’s head, could the photo
session have been postponed?

The father. He only had one eye
left, and although it was Friday evening,

I had to leave for a business trip to
Kansai first thing the next morning.

If I returned on Sunday night,
I would be away for two days,

and I thought I would have to
ask Hiroko to take the photos.

He didn’t actually like even
conceive of the idea that you

don’t have to take these photos
that you should actually say no.

Just thinking about this kind of damage was
enough to send shivers down my spine. Hiroko could

not bear it. It may sound rude, but I thought
it would be better for this to end quickly.

On the night of July 1st,
2023, was Samu drove

Runa by car to Susuquino,
looking for the victim.

So this is basically where clubs may be the red
light district in Sapporo City. It’s a security

camera footage of Samu is shown inside the
club several meters from Runa and the victim.

So he’s driven her to a club where
the victim is. He’s dropped his daughter

off and he’s kind of hanging out in
the club waiting for them to come out.

The defense asks, what did you want
from the victim? I thought that if she

confronted him and there was an
apology, the situation could be repaired.

I thought that if he didn’t apologize, that would be an end
of it. So he’s just hoping there’s going to be some kind of

confrontation about this sexual relationship they had and it’s
just going to end that night after they have maybe an argument.

What were your thoughts
when you looked for the victim?

I hope that he wouldn’t be found
that she would just give up on it.

So he’s actually like the whole time going, I hope
she doesn’t find this guy. I hope we don’t have

to talk to this guy. I hope this doesn’t actually
work out the way I think it’s going to work out.

He knows something bad is going
to happen if she actually finds him.

The defense. I don’t think you
know anything about the victim.

So how did you look for places he might be? The
father. I didn’t get any personal information from

him at all. I heard his nickname and that he
often goes to clubs for older people on weekends.

So I looked for him based on those conditions.
The defense. When Runa went looking for

the victim, she called him Sheikah, which
is Japanese for deer on the line chat app.

How did she start calling him Sheikah? The father. When we were looking for the victim, neither my daughter nor any of the family knew him. So calling
him by his nickname didn’t sound good to my daughter. I guess she thought there were other ways to call him. My daughter asked me to call him Sheikah

just before we left. I don’t get the relevance of that. It’s an interesting point that they started talking about. This guy has a nickname in what
people should be calling each other. So Runa had bought the equipment. She bought a bunch of knives, several knives, and the father bought a suitcase.

And a saw because she told him to. She’s like, I want
you to get a suitcase that holds a hundred kilos and a

saw. And I’m not going to tell you what it’s for, but
we’re going to go see this guy that I’m really angry at.

The father and daughter
practiced SNM before the murder.

So that’s actually going
to be the bit that comes up.

Defense. Who is the one who started talking about
SNM practice? A father. From my daughter, after

making an appointment with the victim, my daughter
practiced saying I was attacked last time.

So this time I’ll be the attacker.
The defense. How long did it take?

I think it most it was one to two
minutes. Defense specifically. The father.

I was sitting upright with my hands handcuffed behind my
back and wearing an eye mask. And my daughter approached

me from behind touching me here and there. I remember
her asking me how it felt in interacting with me.

So she’s got her father tied up in an SNM kind of
bondage scenario. She’s taken a knife for some kind

of tool and she’s just touching him with it saying
like how does this feel? How do you feel right now?

And she’s trying to
figure out what the best

way of executing this
murder would actually be.

Osama’s internet history search
on June 25th, 2023 shows that he

researched the purchase of a large
black suitcase during questioning.

He said it was to be used for Runa’s
doll collection, which numbers over 100.

So she has 100 like toys,
stuffy animals, dolls in her room.

He’s saying the suitcase was for that.
The defense did Osama’s search for suitcase

load capacity 100 kilograms and suitcase
load capacity 50 kilograms. The father.

I don’t remember exactly, but I was asked to look
what could fit in it. So I did type it in myself

or click it maybe. How many dolls can fit in a
black suitcase? I think 20 to 30 can fit in it.

What about the 70 centimeter tall
ones? I think about 15 can fit in it.

How much do they weigh? Each one weighs
four to five kilograms. These are heavy.

So these aren’t stuffy animals
like I thought. These are big

heavy dolls and seven
decentimeters is about half my height.

So that’s like two three
feet tall. So if there’s no

cushioning or anything, it could
weigh about 50 to 70 kilogram.

Were you told to clearly
film the destruction?

I was told to film without being
told what was inside the bathroom.

So this is interesting a thing the defense is doing what they’ve
done is gone through. Did you buy the suitcase? What could

fit in the suitcase? And then switch immediately back to where
you told clearly to film what she was going to do to the head.

And he has to like pivot back and
forth. That might be to throw the person

on the stand off so that they have
to answer questions without thinking.

I’m just again, I’m interested in
the court proceedings and the

tactics that actually take place
when you’re actually on trial defense.

At what point did you realize that the mutilation of the
head would occur? The father I took the camera to the

bathroom and when I was shown the damaged bottles and other
things and I was told the eyes were still in the head.

I thought that the mutilation would occur. I didn’t
know until I got to the bathroom, but that does

indicate that he knew there was a head in there and he
hasn’t stopped this and he hasn’t called the police.

During the trial the prosecution’s explanation
of evidence revealed that before the incident

Osamu had searched the internet for fingerprints
can be erased with bleach. Very telling.

And suitcase load capacity 100 kilograms. For her part, Hiroko sent a line message to Osamu
asking, “By the way, will the GPS record of the car be saved?” She then deleted the message.

She’s asking like, “Is there going to be a record of where the car goes that night? Can
we delete that?” And then she deleted that message thinking that it would then disappear.

So then they get sort of switch topics and
they get into the weird SNM practice again.

Runa told me to sit upright in the
middle of the living room of our house.

Put my hands behind my
back and close my eyes.

Osamu told the
court as a witness.

I was told to sit as if I was
handcuffed and blindfolded.

I felt something moving
from behind and I felt

something touching my
cheeks and neck with a scarf.

So he’s saying there’s
some kind of binding material,

a scarf or something that
she’s touching him with.

Yeah, she’s testing to see what
his kind of reactions are going

to be before he actually goes
ahead and does this actual crime.

It turns out that a few more details
came out a couple days ago. There are

claims that she rented several horror
movies 10 days before the actual crime.

She rented the 2016 movie Terrifier.
She rented the 2017 movie Leatherface.

Both contain neck cutting scenes
which Runa recorded on her phone.

So she’s watching these horror
movies. She’s getting to these parts where

she actually like the murderer
kills someone by cutting their throne.

And she records that on her phone. We assume so
she can study it later. Runa and the victim had

sex multiple times. The last time there was no
protection used and she said you broke your promise.

The only other details
are about sort of her youth

and when she’s a child and
when she was brought up.

And it’s really just a question of how did she get to
this place in her life where she was able to command her

parents so freely where she was able to think that murder
was going to be an accessible solution to this problem.

Runa stopped going to school after middle school. She
never went to high school. She never did any schooling

beyond that. It sounds like she didn’t work. She just
stayed at home and ordered her parents to do things.

She already had control by that time over her
parents. Her parents raised their daughter

without getting angry. They bought her
everything she wanted the prosecution said.

They couldn’t scold her. The house was
overflowing with loonous things. Kidoko lived in

a small place and Osama had no place in the
house so he spent his time at internet cafes.

So because the house was full of her stuff, there was no
actual space for their parents. The father actually seemed to

spend most of his time outside of the house at internet cafes,
probably just surfing the internet reading and sleeping.

Kidoko would ask her daughter what she wanted and communicated with Osama
online. So basically she would say, “What do you want today? Maybe food?

Maybe a thing.” And then she would make that request to the father on a
messaging app and then the father would come home and just drop it off.

The mother called Runa young lady and spoke to
her in polite language. So in Japanese there is

familial language and polite language. There’s
different levels. There’s also very rude language.

That’s sort of the important thing you have to
learn when you start learning Japanese. When you

speak to your parents, you should be more polite,
just a little bit, but you’re still familiar.

In this case the mother is speaking to
the daughter like the mother is a servant

and then the daughter is sort of the master
of the house by calling her young lady.

Runa told her father to sell her
mother to a jukujo fusoku business, which

is a brothel that specializes in older
women instead of younger women.

And Osama was her personal driver. So like
when she went searching for the victim,

the father drove her around from place to
place so she could go hunting for this guy.

She made the father join all
nighters at game centers and other

places, Runa was selfish and
treated her parents like slaves.

So this is an ongoing case. There is
no resolution yet, but when we get to an

update, I will update on the actual
results, but it’s pretty clear she’s guilty.

It’s actually more interesting as to whether or
not the parents what they’re going to be prosecuted

with, what they’re actually going to be charged with,
what they’re actually going to find culpable of.

Because it sounds like in a weird way, once Runa took control over
the household, they were almost victims of her, but of course at

any point being adults, they could have called the police, they could
have looked for help, they could have tried to do something else.

But the father’s a psychiatrist is to me
one of the more interesting parts because he

fed into this as much as anyone else, but at
the same time, he should have known better.

So this is really just a statement for anyone
out there who thinks about having kids be strict,

do not let your children take control of
everything and do not be nice to your children.

I can’t stop with who will don’t be nice to your children. But
absolutely, this is a case for being strict with your children and not

giving them sort of that gentle, soft love and never saying no to
them like is actually a very modern trend of what is gentle parenting?

I’m not a fan of that. This is a very good example case of gentle
parenting and not saying no to your kids is not a good idea

because you could end up in a situation where you are driving your
child around looking for a victim and participating in the crime.

Which is going to get you arrested as well.

I think this murder in Japan series,
because this is the third one, if it keeps

going, should be Ninja Ninja Japan
specials, which is almost self evident.

But I’ve hit basically writer’s block.
I’ve been doing so many other projects

that I haven’t had any ideas for
things to talk about for a seeming be.

And I don’t want it to just die. So I think
that’s actually why I did it this way. I

kind of just took what would be a special
Ninja Japan and made it into a seeming be.

I was trying it out though, and I do like it.
There’s a lot less commentary a lot more just like

reading and passing on facts. I think this might
be one that’s better to do with someone else.

Like I go through this stuff and
then talk to someone about it.