Seito Sakakibara

Kobe, Japan June 1999:

It's the last week of May, when students and teachers arrive to school they find the decapitated head of a murdered eleven years old boy on the stairs outside the main entrance. On Friday June, 6 a local newspaper receives a letter from the murderer. In this letter he threatens to slay three more "vegetables" each week unless the police manages to catch him. The murderer claims that he want revenge on the tough Japanese educational system and this is why he has placed the boys head in front of the school entrance. The letter was signed "Seito Sakakibara", and this might be part of the game he says he's playing with the police. "This is my real name and not a puzzle", he says in the letter. He also mocks the police for not being determined enough in their search for him.

Seito can mean pupil or student in Japanese and is seldom or never used as an actual name. There were also one or several messages found in the mouth of the decapitated boy, but the police has not commented on what this/these said.

In March two little girls were attacked by a man with a knife, not far from the school where the head was found. One of the girls later died from her wounds. Police say they have no proof it's the same killer, but there are circumstances indicating it could be. The prime minister of Japan has demanded that all available resources are put in to try and stop the killer.