Choked, raped, and dismembered girls: in Japan, the notorious "Twitter killer" was executed - BBC
For the first time since 2022, Japan has carried out a death sentence, reports BBC.
Takahiro Shiraisi, who murdered nine people in 2017, was executed. He claimed he was killing those who dreamed of suicide. Most of his victims were girls aged 15 to 26. He lured them to his apartment near Tokyo, then strangled and dismembered them. Some he raped.
Shiraisi's lawyers sought a lighter sentence. They argued that the condemned was fulfilling the wishes of his victims.
The murders became known in October 2017, when police found body parts in the city of Zama, near Tokyo. A clue was provided by the brother of one of the missing girls. He managed to access his sister's Twitter account (now X network). In her private messages, he discovered correspondence with an unknown man who offered to meet the girl and fulfill her wishes.
At the same time, police finally tracked the path of this 23-year-old girl using surveillance cameras on the streets. The investigation led them to an inconspicuous two-story house, which from the outside looked no different from other houses in the area. Later, the media dubbed it the "house of horrors." A man opened the door, and the police immediately sensed an unpleasant smell.
They found nine dismembered bodies hidden in refrigerators and tool chests. On top, the killer sprinkled the remains with cat litter to reduce the smell. Later, Shiraisi confessed to killing nine people with suicidal intentions and described how he met them on Twitter. He told his victims he could help them die, and in some cases, claimed he would commit suicide with them.
His social media profile contained the words: "I want to help people who are truly hurting. Please send me a private message anytime".
Whether Shiraisi killed his victims with their consent was a major topic of debate in court. Prosecutors demanded the death penalty, while lawyers requested a milder punishment. They argued that his victims consented to being killed by him. They also called for an assessment of his mental state.
Later, Shiraisi denied the version of events presented by his own defense and stated that he killed his victims without their consent. This was confirmed by an examination: traces of a rope thrown from behind were found on some bodies, proving that the victims resisted.
Hundreds of people attended the verdict announcement in December 2020 — Shiraisi was sentenced to death then.
What is known about the victims
Eight out of nine victims of the "Twitter killer" were aged between 16 and 26.
One of them was 21-year-old Mizuki Miura from the town of Atsugi, 50 kilometers from Tokyo. On June 22, 2017, she stopped responding to messages and calls. On the same day, her parents found a note from their daughter in her apartment. Mizuki wrote that she was leaving because she wanted to start living separately.
Her boyfriend, Syo Nishinake, found out: the last person to see Mizuki was her acquaintance, whom she met online. Syo even saw this person, Takahiro, a little, but knew little about him.
On August 30, Syo wrote to Takahiro and reported his girlfriend's disappearance. Takahiro responded that he would tell everything he remembered about their last meeting with Mizuki and invited Syo to his house in the neighboring town of Zama. After that, Syo was never seen again. Police found that some girls shared suicidal thoughts on Twitter before their disappearance.
The father of one of the missing girls categorically denied that his daughter could have taken her own life. He assured that 17-year-old Akari was busy with her studies, and she spent all her free time drawing because she dreamed of becoming a manga artist in the future. The parents of Mizuki Miura also did not notice any suicidal tendencies. After examining the social networks of the missing girls, the police came to a different conclusion.
What is known about the killer
In 2017, Shiraisi was 27 years old. He spent most of his life living with his father and sister.
At some point, he moved to Tokyo, where he found a job: officially, he was supposed to help young women find work, but in reality, he supplied brothels with new workers.
The police had long been interested in the company he worked for, and in 2016, they completed their investigation. The company was dissolved, and its employees were prosecuted. Shiraisi received a suspended sentence. After that, he spent several months trying to find a new job but was rejected everywhere due to his criminal record. Disappointed, he decided to return to his hometown of Zama, where he rented an apartment.
Shiraisi's father later recounted that his son, unemployed and having broken up with his girlfriend, said: "I don't know why I should live". Soon after, he created the same Twitter account.
He found girls who openly wrote about feeling that their lives had no meaning, engaged in correspondence with them. After some time, he invited them to his place, where he tied them with a cable, raped and strangled them, then took all the money he found on them. Some of them he gave sleeping pills. Syo, who came to him searching for his girlfriend, was drugged with sleeping pills in his drink.
After his arrest, Shiraisi underwent nearly six months of psychiatric evaluation and still concluded that he was aware of his actions, meaning he was sane.
