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I felt all alone... Whenever I saw a little girl playing on her own, it was almost like seeing myself.
Miyazaki

Tsutomu Miyazaki, a.k.a. "The Otaku Murderer" or "The Little Girl Murderer", was a Japanese "vampirist"-type necrophilic, pedophilic, and (once) cannibalistic serial killer and abductor.

Background[]

Miyazaki was born with deformed hands as a result of his premature birth; his hands were fused to his wrists, meaning he would have to move his entire forearm to rotate the hand. During his elementary school years, he was a quiet and shy student who was rejected by his peers due to his deformity, this rejection caused him to develop an obsession over manga. Despite his problems with socializing with other people, he was initially one of the best students in his high school class, until his grades began dropping, eventually resulting in him not receiving admission to Meiji University, a private and prestigious university in Tokyo. Later, Miyazaki attended a junior college and began studying to become a photo technician, leaving his intentions of becoming a teacher behind. Miyazaki soon developed an inferiority complex due to the size of his penis and his inability to socialize with women; his hobby was to take pictures of female tennis players, so he could use them to masturbate.

Miyazaki moved into his parents' house and shared a room with his older sister. Miyazaki's family was highly influential in their town, his father owned a newspaper, but he had no desire to take over his job; Miyazaki would later claim that it was during this period that he began to consider suicide. Miyazaki disliked everyone in his family, except for his grandfather, who died in May 1988; his death worsened Miyazaki's depression and as a way to "retain something from him", Miyazaki ate part of his grandfather's ashes. Weeks later, Miyazaki's sister caught him spying on her while she was showering, and when she confronted him, he attacked her and his mother after having an argument with her. Miyazaki began collecting pornographic anime, adult magazines, violent films, and child porn, gathering a total of 5,763 videotapes.

Murders, Arrest, and Execution[]

On August 22, 1988, just one day after his birthday, Miyazaki abducted a young girl named Mari Konno while she was playing at a friend's house and drove her to a wooded area, the two sat in the car under a bridge for several minutes before he strangled her to death and engaged in acts of necrophilia with her corpse, leaving her in hills near his home, taking her clothes with him. Miyazaki eventually returned to her and removed body parts and some of her teeth. Miyazaki turned Konno's bones into powder and placed them in a box, alongside with her teeth, pictures of her clothes and a postcard containing the words "Mari. Cremated. Bones. Investigate. Prove.", which he then sent to her family; Miyazaki kept her hands and feet on his apartment. On October 3, Miyazaki spotted Masami Yoshizawa on a rural road, offering her a ride and taking her to the same place where he had killed Konno, repeating the same process of strangling the child, having sex with her corpse and taking her clothes. The next month, Miyazaki was returning from a friend's house when he abducted Erika Nanba and drove her to a parking lot, forcing her to undress and allowing him to take pictures of her nude body before killing her. Miyazaki covered her body with a bed sheet and took her clothes, but later disposed of them in a wooded area, leaving the girl's body in the parking lot; Miyazaki would later send a postcard to her family, containing the words "Erika. Cold. Cough. Throat. Rest. Death."

On June 6, 1989, Miyazaki led a girl into his car after taking pictures of her and killed her, leaving her body in his apartment and using it for necrophilia, taking pictures of it in various positions and filming it. When her body began decomposing, Miyazaki dismembered it, disposed of the head in a cemetery and the torso in hills, but he would later retrieve the body parts, keeping them in his closet; Miyazaki also drank blood from the girl's hands and ate part of them. On July 23, Miyazaki attempted to insert zoom lens into the vagina of a girl in a park but was stopped by her father, Miyazaki fled from the area, naked and on foot, but was arrested when he returned to retrieve his car. Police soon found Miyazaki's disturbing collection and the body parts he had hid. During his trial, Miyazaki blamed the murders on an alter ego called "Rat Man", who coerced him into committing the murders. The court judged him fit to stand trial and he was sentenced to death. Miyazaki's father refused to pay for his legal defense and committed suicide in 1994. While awaiting to be executed, child killer Kaoru Kobayashi told during his trial that he wanted to be "the next Tsutomu Miyazaki or Mamoru Takuma", which enraged him. Miyazaki was hanged on June 17, 2008, at the age of 45.

Modus Operandi[]

Miyazaki targeted girls aged between four and seven-years old. He would drive around Saitama and Tokyo Prefectures and abduct the first suitable girl on sight, either by manipulating her or forcing her into the vehicle. He would then take the victim to a secluded location and kill her by strangulation. As a signature, Miyazaki would make silent phone calls to his victims' families; the phones would ring for at least 20 minutes if they did not answer it. Some of the families received postcards with letters cut from magazines to form cryptic words related to the child's murder. After killing his victims, he engaged in acts of necrophilia with their corpses and on one occasion, cannibalized a body part. Miyazaki would keep his victims' clothing and body parts as trophies, which he hid in his closet.

Profile[]

Psychologists concluded that he was sane, but suffered from both dissociative identity disorder and a severe case of schizophrenia, though other psychologists suggested that he had no apparent disorder. Dr. Susuma Oda, a psychologist at Tsukuba University, described his serial murders as "thrill killings of a rare kind", Oda believed that he thought himself as important due to his deformities and small penis, and saw his victims as nothing more than characters from his comic book-life. Professor and psychotherapist Akira Ishii stated that he was a pedophile first and murderer second, as "Killing was an extension of his interest in little girls, a way of possessing them."

Known Victims[]

  • 1988:
    • His unnamed mother and sister (both assaulted only)
    • August 22: Mari Konno, 4 (removed her hands, feet, teeth, and bones post-mortem)
    • October 3: Masami Yoshizawa, 7
    • December 12: Erika Nanba, 4
  • 1989
    • June 6: Ayako Nomoto, 5 (dismembered and ate part of her hands post-mortem)
    • July 23: Unnamed girl (attempted to insert zoom lens into her vagina; was stopped by her father)

On Criminal Minds[]

While Miyazaki was never directly mentioned or referenced on the show, he appears to have been an inspiration for the following unsubs:

  • Season One
    • Eddie Mays ("Blood Hungry") - Both were psychotic serial killers and abductors who had influential families in their hometowns, had a father figure in their family who died, had troubling relationships with their mothers, cannibalized and kept some of the remains of their victims, posed their victims postmortem, kidnapped at least one child victim, and had a surviving child victim who was saved by the intervention of an adult.
  • Season Nine
    • Daniel Milworth ("The Caller") - Both were serial killers, stalkers, and abductors (budding at least) who committed their crimes after a relative died (Milworth's parents and Miyazaki's grandfather, respectively), had a parent who committed suicide by asphyxiation (Miyazaki's father hanged himself after his son's arrest, while Milworth's mother drowned in an attempted murder-suicide), were technically skilled individuals, targeted children of a specific gender (boys in Milworth's case, girls in Miyazaki's), lured them to secluded areas before strangling them to death, and made phone calls to the parents of their victims as a way to taunt them. Also, both Milworth's mother and the mother of one of his committing suicide could be a slight nod to how Miyazaki's father committing suicide after his son's arrest.

Sources[]

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