In June and July 1992, in the town of Kumatori, Osaka Prefecture
In June and July 1992, a series of suicides and strange deaths of young people between the ages of 17 and 22 occurred in Kumatori Town, Osaka Prefecture.
The mystery of the weekly suicides, which occurred on Wednesdays or Thursdays, caused a great deal of commotion.
The following is a summary of the five suicides.
Thursday, June 4: Unemployed, A., 17 years old, committed suicide by hanging in an onion hut near his home.
June 10 (Wed.) Mr. B (18 years old), a construction worker, committed suicide by hanging in the barn of the house where he used to live.
June 17 (Wed.) Ryokan employee C (18 years old) committed suicide by hanging in a farm shed.
Thursday, June 25: D, a 22-year-old Kishiwada City employee living in Kumatori Town, committed suicide by hanging in a forest in the town.
On Thursday, July 2, E, 19, a student at a women’s college in Kumatori Town, committed suicide by stabbing herself in the chest with a fruit knife.
Two 17-year-olds had also died before the five suicides.
April 29 (Thursday): Sheet metal worker X, 17, dies after inhaling paint thinner and falling into a reservoir in Kumatori Town.
Friday, May 29, Y-kun (age 17), an unemployed worker, died of heart failure caused by thinner inhalation.
Combining the two thinner deaths, all the locations where the bodies were found were concentrated within a radius of 1.2 km.
Within this small area, seven young people had died in two and a half months.
Of the young people in Kumatori Town who committed suicide or died suspiciously, except for Mr. D, a Kishiwada City employee, and Eko, a female college student
Five of them had a connection with thinner and motorcycles as keywords.
A. ・・・・17 years old. In his third year of junior high school, he rarely went to school and spent most of his time at pachinko parlors. In 1991, he formed a motorcycle gang with B, C, and others. In 1991, she formed a motorcycle gang with B, C, and others, and seemed to be especially close to Mr. B. He used paint thinner regularly, and he and B were motorcycle buddies and paint thinner buddies.
B ・・・・18 years old. He was famous among delinquents in Kumatori, and played a role of a suicide squad leader in a biker gang team he established with A and C. At the time, he had a pregnant girlfriend. At the time, he had a pregnant girlfriend, was planning to get married, and had already found a new place to live, and at A’s funeral, he expressed his regret over how A had died and encouraged his friends, saying, “We’re going to live A lives. A few days later, however, he himself committed suicide.
C・・・・18 age. Born in Kochi. He was a baseball boy and went to a strong baseball school but dropped out. At the time of B’s suicide, he was helping at an inn in Toba City, Mie Prefecture, but returned to Kumatori Town upon hearing the news of his suicide. After meeting with friends for a while, he decided that he wanted to see the girl he used to date (17 years old at the time), so he took two friends to see her. However, he heard from the woman that she was going to marry another man soon, and asked his friends if they had any rope. Six hours later, he was found dead of suicide.
D. ・・・・22 years old. Kishiwada city employee.
E・・・・ – 19 years old. Born in Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture. After graduating from a local high school, she went on to Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences. She played softball in high school, but switched to track and field after entering university. He lived in a student dormitory in the town. There was no suicide note.
X・・・・: 17 years old, junior in junior high school to A and B, and had been in contact with them during their school days.
Y ・・・・17 years old, was a motorcycle friend of A. and B. The three of them used to ride around Kumatori area.
Suspicious points
There were many suspicious points that could be ruled as suicide.
Except for a note from A, “I want you to pay back my debt,” no one had prepared anything that looked like a suicide note.
I can’t think of any reason why they had to die.
C, who hung himself in the farm shed, somehow died with his wrists tied behind his back. The police ruled it as a suicide because his clothes were undisturbed and the knot was tied in a way that he could tie it by himself. Why did a person about to die need to tie his hands? (There was also eyewitness testimony that his clothes were dirty.)
D-kun committed suicide by hanging himself by his shirt from a chestnut tree on a small hill near the border between Kumatori and the neighboring city of Kaizuka, but his shirt was hanging from a high branch that he could never reach.
E, a student of physical education, stabbed herself to death in the neck and chest with a knife on the road against the ground in a residential area. Her body was stuck in a narrow gutter along the road. The time was after 8:00 a.m., when people were still passing by. Why did she choose to die in such a prominent place? In addition, E had just set a new personal best record in a track and field event, and was very happy about it. No reason for her death came to mind. On the day of her death, E was found covered in blood, and in a daze, she repeatedly said, “No, no, no.
B, C, and E had been telling acquaintances and family members that they were being chased by a car for some time; B told his mother that he was being chased by a white Crown, and when he asked C about it, he told her that he had heard that happen several times. E told a friend that she was being followed by a black car.
