Kaede Ariyama
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In 2004, Kaede Ariyama (有山楓 Ariyama Kaede?) [1], a seven year old first-grade student from the Japanese city of Nara, was kidnapped, raped and murdered by Kaoru Kobayashi, a local newspaper delivery man. Kobayashi already had a record as a sexual offender at that time. Kaede Ariyama is considered to be the Japanese analog of the United States's Megan Kanka.
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[edit] Kidnapping and murder
On November 17, 2004, in the Tomio suburb of Nara, Kaede Ariyama, a student at Tomio North Elementary School, was kidnapped on her way home from school. The kidnapping occurred in close proximity to Nara Prefecture's west-side police station. Using the girl's cellular phone, the kidnapper sent Kaede's photograph with the message: "I've got your daughter!" to her family. The anti-kidnapping GPS function of the cellular phone was disabled by the criminal. The kidnapper later murdered Kaede and dumped her body in the town of Heguri in the Ikoma District of Nara Prefecture where she was found later that night.
The official autopsy revealed the cause of death to be drowning. The water collected in Kaede's lungs was not dirty, so it was assumed that the kidnapper had drowned her in a sink or bathtub. Also, it seems that the kidnapper had undressed the victim before murdering her, and that she was re-dressed after she was murdered.
There were also abrasions present on the hands and feet of Kaede, and several of her teeth were missing. It was assumed that the abrasions had been made post-mortem by the suspect. The removal of the teeth was also performed post-mortem.[2]
Several strands of hair were present on Kaede's clothes. Two types of hair were found: one type was judged to belong to a person with B blood type, the other type belonged to a person with AB blood type.
Before dawn on December 14, 2004, the kidnapper sent an e-mail from Kaede's cellular phone to Kaede's parents' and relatives' cellular phones, saying "I'm going for her younger sister next!" An image of Kaede was included in the e-mail.
[edit] Arrest
On December 30, 2004, Kaoru Kobayashi (小林薫 Kobayashi Kaoru), who lived in the town of Kawai in Kitakatsuragi District in Nara Prefecture, was arrested. The suburbs of Kitakatsuragi along with Tomio and Ikoma are all in the north-west area of Nara Prefecture.
Kobayashi had send the victim's photograph from her cellular phone to his own. His use of the victim's phone helped speed his arrest because the local cell phone towers logged the messages sent from the phone. He showed off the photograph to a waitress and customers in a local bar. He claimed to have gotten the photograph from a website. He suggested that the crime was committed by a Figure moe zoku (a stereotypical recluse who dreams of committing sex crimes) posting anonymously on the internet, as Japanese newspapers and television news shows had suspected.
At the time of the murder, Kobayashi was employed as a newspaper delivery man for Mainichi Shimbun, which is one of Japan's five national newspapers, in the Ikoma district of Nara Prefecture. He had previously worked at a newstand for Asahi Shimbun, also one of the national newspapers, in the Tomio area, between March and July of 2000, so he knew his way around the Ikoma-Tomio area very well. It was thought that he chose his victim at random, with a girl walking alone being an easy target.
Ironically, he was arrested after he had finished his morning paper route distributing the news that the suspect would be arrested soon. [3]
The police confiscated from the suspect's room a video and a magazine containing child pornography. In addition, Kaede's underwear was discovered. He was thus thought to be a pedophile.
A witness saw Kaede walking to Kobayashi's car. It was then determined that the victim and Kobayashi knew each other. However, Kobayashi said "I have no acquaintance with the victim. I was going to kidnap a girl, whomever it was."
The suspect was prosecuted 21 days after arrest. The suspect had a previous sexual offense involving an infant. It was then that public attention turned to passing a law in Japan similar to Megan's Law in the United States.
[edit] Resulting Lawsuits
In the wake of the arrest, it came out that the manager of the newspaper delivery agency in Higashisumiyoshi Ward had made a report to the police that a newspaper subscription fee of 230,000 yen had been stolen. Afterwards, the manager discovered that it was Kobayashi, now working in Kawai.On November 17, 2004, the day of the kidnapping, a judge had issued an arrest warrant for Kobayashi for the theft reported by the manager. However, the manager did not inform the police of this because he was promised that the suspect would repay him for the stolen money with monthly payments. Therefore, the police were not able to arrest Kobayashi, and he was free to commit his attack. When this came out, Mainichi Shimbun terminated its contracts with these two delivery agents in Kawai and Higashisumiyoshi Ward in Osaka on January 31, 2005.
On September 26, 2006, Kobayashi was sentenced to death by hanging by the Nara district court. The defense made an appeal on the same day.
