Japanese man rented apartment where his wife was murdered for 26 years to preserve evidence in hope of new technologies. And finally, the killer was found
The murder occurred on November 13, 1999, in Nagoya, Japan's fourth-largest city. Housewife Namiku Takaba was found dead in her home with multiple stab wounds to her neck. Her two-year-old son was nearby and unharmed.
Satoru Takaba with his wife and son. Photo: QQ.com via scmp.com
As reported by South China Morning Post, the investigation was extensive from the very beginning: about 100,000 police officers participated, and 5,000 people were interviewed. Investigators found that the perpetrator washed her hand, injured during the attack, in the apartment sink. However, this yielded no results.
Investigators could only determine general characteristics of the suspect: female, blood type B, about 1.6 meters tall, shoe size 24 cm. Police even announced a reward for information, but this did not help either.
The victim's husband, Satoru Takaba, made an unusual decision: he left the apartment exactly as it was after the crime and continued to pay rent for it. He himself lived elsewhere with his son and never remarried.
It is reported that over 26 years, he spent about 22 million yen (approximately 145,000 US dollars) on renting the empty apartment.
Satoru did not clean the blood or change anything in the interior, hoping that one day new technologies would help solve the crime. In parallel, he tried to draw attention to the case himself: distributing flyers on the streets, giving interviews, and urging people to share any information.
A breakthrough occurred only in 2024, when the police reopened the investigation and paid special attention to people within the family's circle of acquaintances. On October 30, 2025, the perpetrator surrendered to the police.
Satoru Takaba at the threshold of the apartment where his wife was killed. Photo: asahi.com
It turned out to be a long-time acquaintance of Satoru — Kumiko Yasufuku, now 69 years old. It is reported that the woman had been questioned before but refused to provide blood for DNA analysis. Now, the expertise has shown that the DNA found at the crime scene matches hers. The woman was detained on suspicion of murder.
According to the perpetrator, she lived in fear and anxiety for many years but did not want to surrender to avoid causing problems for her family. Only after the police contacted her again, Kumiko said, she was ready for arrest and decided to confess.
For Satoru Takaba, the suspect's name came as a shock. It turned out that she was his former classmate, who was once in love with him, but he rejected her feelings.
Kumiko Yasufuku's photo from a high school yearbook. Source: japantimes.co.jp
After school, they did not keep in touch and met for the first time in 20 years about five months before the crime — at a reunion of the school's tennis club. As Satoru recalls, the woman said she was married: "I'm doing well with both work and raising my child."
Before the crime itself, she did not bother the man's family in any way, so Takaba did not even consider her as a possible suspect. Moreover, he was convinced that the killer had long left the city. However, it turned out that all these years the woman lived not far from the apartment he continued to rent.
According to the investigation, on November 13, 1999, Kumiko came to his wife to talk, but the conversation escalated into a conflict that ended in tragedy. Neighbors had reported to the police at the time that they heard arguments in the victim's house before the murder.
After the suspect's arrest, Takaba acknowledged that his persistence was not in vain. And although the truth turned out to be unexpected and painful, he emphasized that the main thing is that justice finally prevailed.
As reported by The Japan Times, on March 5 of this year, the woman was indicted. She awaits a jury trial. It is reported that Yasufuku initially gave testimony but later exercised her right to remain silent, so the motive for the crime has not yet been established. Takaba states that he has no idea what could have prompted his classmate to attack his wife.
A psychiatric examination showed that Yasufuku is mentally capable of bearing criminal responsibility.
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Japanese man rented apartment where his wife was murdered for 26 years to preserve evidence in hope of new technologies. And finally, the killer was found 11
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