#301: Japanese Dad-Daughter Duo Decapitate Victim In Love Motel

0:02Have you ever been to a love motel? Love motels are pretty popular in Asia. They're designed for people to get in and get out, literally. So the utilization is not the same as regular hotels. If you're visiting South Korea for a week, I mean, chances are you're not booking a love hotel for a week. It's mainly for couples that are looking for a bed or either a few hours, maybe the entire night if you've got the stamina. And you can typically tell when it's a love motel. they'll have these neon love hearts outside or it'll say love in the name or cupid it'll advertise a rest rate so a rest rate is different from normal hotel stay rates stay rates are when you book the room for the night so i mean we've all been there right you check in saturday afternoon check out sunday rest rates are just you book a room for a few hours during the day which you can imagine what people are using this for i was planning on going to a ton of love motels in korea next time that i'm there just because i think it's so fascinating you know a lot of them are themed each room has a color theme or a fantasy thing there's a love hotel in japan where you can rent a room that is designed after the japanese subway station they will even play the announcements of like arriving at blah blah blah station be careful of sliding doors so if you've ever had the urge to do it on public transit this would be your safest bet i imagine there's one where you can rent a fake doctor's exam room there's fake x-rays stethoscope setup and of course you can even rent role-playing costumes there's another love motel where every single room is just hardcore bdsm dungeons it's called hotel alpha in tokyo you get complimentary whips collars gags feather dusters and blindfolds there's a bunch of different frames so you can be suspended on the walls or the ceiling if that's what you prefer suspend it on the ceiling yeah like hanging from the ceiling upside down if that's your thing okay i mean the tvs in these love motels they typically come complete with like a collection of adult entertainment to watch and if you're feeling extra frisky i guess in korea you can get your love hotel to be ramen themed you can sleep inside of a bed inside of a cup ramen that's the one yeah and they know what you're doing inside of that cup ramen because most love hotels they come equipped with two complimentary pieces of protection.

2:28So Runa, a 29-year-old Japanese woman, was at one of these love motels in the red light district of Sapporo, Japan. This is like June of this year, so a few months ago. And the room that they booked for the next few hours was an all pink themed room. The walls, the carpeting, the table, everything was pink. He was waiting for her in the bathtub. Just a second, I'll be right there. She reaches into her suitcase and pulls out her new raincoat. It's got the smell of thick plastic. She unfolds it, puts it on, covering her clothes. Then she bends down, grabs a pair of gloves, squeezes her hands. It's like those rubber kitchen gloves.

3:10Squeezes her hands in until they make this, like, satisfying smack sound. Now, now she's ready for him. For three hours, Runa would be in the bathroom with this man. She would walk back out into the all pink room and start packing up her bags. Her job was done. Her dad, an influential psychiatrist at a local hospital, would be picking her up soon. She didn't want to keep him waiting outside the hotel, so she throws in her raincoat. She throws in her gloves back into the suitcase. She digs out fresh clothes and pulls out a blonde wig. It's probably itchy, but it would be good to have it on that night.

3:45She adjusts the wig, puts on lipstick, and grabs the handle of her suitcase and walks out that hotel room door. Some would say that she had a pip in her step. Maybe it was the new toy that she had just acquired. In her suitcase, she had the decapitated head of the man bobbing around. As always, full show notes are available at RottenMinglePodcast.com. As with most international cases, we had our wonderful Japanese researchers assist in gathering of the facts and also analyzing social discourse about this case. I mean, this was pretty big in Japan. It still is. The crime happened just a few months ago.

4:26Trial has not started yet. So it's a developing case, which is a good time to mention that nobody has been convicted in the court of law. I mean, the evidence here is overwhelming to say the least. And there really doesn't seem to be too much of a debate on if this person did something, but more so on why did this person do this? Or was anybody else involved? So I'm really curious to get your thoughts on this one. Please leave it in the comments. But as always, if there's anything lost in translation, anything that we missed, please let me know. And with that being said, let's get started. Do you think therapists take their own advice?

5:04Probably not. Probably not, right? Like when they have a parent sitting in their therapy chair. I'm kidding. I think they do. I think they do. Like when they have a parent sitting in their therapy chair and they tell them, you know, it's time, Mrs. Lee. It's time. You got to let your child, adult child, learn and grow. It's time for them to learn consequences on their own. You've done their job. You need to give them space. Stop hovering. Do you think those same therapists, if they are also parents, go home and follow their own advice. While in the office, Dr. Tamura, he preached the importance of setting boundaries, healthy family dynamics, and giving children the space to learn.

5:45But off hours, Dr. Tamura found himself in very strange situations. That night after work, Dr. Tamura still dressed in his smart business casual attire. He would end up at a club. There were drunk party goers like all around him surrounding him, spilling the drinks in their hands, swaying to the music, they're screaming. And in the middle of this crowd, he's just standing there. He's not even trying to fit in. He's not even, it's really weird if there's a CCTV video of this, but he just stands there staring intently at someone. He was holding his daughter's jacket in his arm, waiting for her while watching her dance intimately with a man, the man that they planned to murder.

6:33Is he hiding or he's... No. He's not hiding? No, that's the weirder part. Because I can't imagine dancing like that in front of my dad. Really? Even with my husband, yeah. So the man also knows the dad was watching? I don't know if the man knows, but the daughter knows. Oh, okay, okay. It's really weird. her name is Runa Tamura and she'd always been a little bit weird if you see pictures of her she's got long black hair down to her waist and it's almost always pinned straight or at least the pictures I've seen her face is really pale in the sense that it looks like she doesn't spend a lot of time out in the sun so the contrast of the long dark black hair and her pale skin it does kind of add like a ghostly look she doesn't smile often that's what people said and she had this very creepy tendency to stare deeply into your eyes with this empty dark look in her free time her hair would be like half covering her face and she would hum make these little trinkets for her doll collections she loved dolls as a 29 year old which nothing's wrong with that but it's a little creepy like what kind of trinkets little doll clothing she'd just be sitting there so focused growing up Runa had a bit of a temper that's probably what the teachers called it okay when they bring her parents in for yet another emergency meeting it's a nice way of saying excuse me sir there is something seriously wrong with your child and the dad would say something along the lines of well what did our Runa do this time I don't understand well your daughter came to school wearing a dress okay and a little boy from class gathered up all this courage to walk over to your daughter, tap her on the shoulder and say, hey, um, you look, you look so, I think he was trying to say you look pretty.

8:27You look like an anime character. Your daughter pulled out a knife and told him she would stab him and then chased him around with that said knife all around the classroom. Another time teachers were eating lunch in the break room and they're like, did you see what one of her students wrote in the essay? They're like, no, what? I want to see. And they're gathered around, passing around this piece of paper with this very childish writing on there. I mean, it's clearly the work of like a fourth grader. And the words said, I had lots of fun during the school field trip, but I was shocked that I was the only girl that brought a wooden sword.

9:01There seems to be very few girls who are interested in knives and swords like I am. Runa's parents were called in for yet another emergency meeting. The teachers most likely suggested nicely, of course, that Runa was exhibiting some alarming behavior that at least to them it felt like she could use some professional help, right? Dr. Tamura clearly disagreed. He would later state, I'm a psychiatrist. I'm treating my daughter myself. Side note, he's not even just a regular psychiatrist. He is the head of psychiatry at the Kinikyo Central Hospital. So this guy's a big shot psychiatrist. By the time that Runa is 29, I don't think that she got any professional help, any counseling therapy, any sort of psychiatric treatment unless it was done by her dad.

9:48At least that's what it seems like according to the sources. At 29, she's still living with her parents and the family dynamic was odd. I wouldn't say that it's clear that Runa was in charge, but her parents, I mean, they spoiled her. They tried to give her everything that she wanted. Her dad would go out on these business trips, go out of his way to buy her these cute frilly pink almost like lolita-esque style dresses even post about it on facebook and this part is also interesting but when he posted about his daughter on facebook he always referred to as like musemi-san which musemi i think i'm saying that right is a common way to say daughter in japan but when san is added it becomes a lot more formal if not even distant and respectful so it's one thing if a kid addresses their parent like that but for a parent to address their child like that, it felt like he was treating his child like royalty.

10:44Like he bows down at her feet and worships the ground she walks on. At 29, Runa is completely secluded. She spent most of her days in her family's three-story concrete mansion. Yeah, side note, a three-story concrete house in Japan is a luxury. Like, you would need to have some real money to have that type of home. I mean, it even had this garden that Mrs. Tamura loved taking care of. So it's a nice one. People that knew Runa said, you know, she's reclusive. But there's not like anything strikingly wrong with her. Like, she's not weird. She doesn't give me the creeps. People even thought it was kind of a shame.

11:27Some of her former friends said, you know, she's so pretty. She's pretty. She's young. Her family's really well off. She could have easily had the perfect life. Anytime we invited her anywhere with people her age, she would just sit in the corner on her phone. She would never smile. She looked miserable. It seemed like Runa preferred to spend time with her dad. A relative said, her parents, you know, they drown her in so much love. I guess that's the way to put it. Hotel Let's is a love hotel in the red light district of Sapporo, Japan. It's not a big one. It's got 14 rooms, so it's not difficult for the staff to keep track of the guests that are coming in and out.

12:07I mean, I guess the whole point of their job is to not track who's coming in and out, but at least they have to manage which rooms had guests that are overseeing their visit. If they pay for three hours, they better be gone by the third hour. At 3 p.m., the front desk noticed that room 202 that had two occupants. They saw one leave already in the middle of the night, but the other guests hadn't left. I mean, it's way past checkout time. Maybe they forgot to set the alarm. Maybe they slept in after a long, fun night. the receptionist goes upstairs to room 202 she's knocking front desk no response she puts her ear up to the door which i mean that's a pretty bold thing to do in a love hotel but this is her job she's got to make sure that they're out so she can rent this room again she tries knocking again no answer heads back downstairs to grab the spare key runs all the way back up one more time.

13:04If anyone's in there, we're coming in unless you open the door. Nothing. Silence. Not even a peep. Not even shuffling of blankets or furniture. Nothing. So she inserts the hotel key, opens the door, and the room is perfectly fine. It's all pink. Nothing has, the bed is empty, completely unused. No personal items left behind. Maybe all the guests left on the front desk just failed to notice. Maybe it was extra busy that night. but there was something off about this room it was just too clean it didn't even feel like a single person stayed here even for an hour i mean this is a love motel it's not uncommon for things to be used moved around rearranged she's about to walk back out but it is hotel policy to check the entirety of the room to make sure the guests have evacuated before they send in the cleaners she does a quick sweep of the main room bed tv mini fridge everything is pink everything is good She takes a left into the bathroom and right there, in contrast to the soft pink, bright pastel color of the room, was the worst thing that she had ever seen in her life.

14:15Her voice got caught in her throat and she starts stumbling like backwards. She lets out this scream. I mean, it's the type of scream that every single person inside this hotel would know. That's not a scream of fun. That's a scream of sheer terror. in the bathtub of this very pink room, propped up against the bathtub wall, was a naked body, hands tied behind their back, without a head. The body was taken immediately into police custody, and it was just chaos at this hotel. Side note, murders in Japan are pretty rare, and we're going to get into that later, but they had 240 police officers working this case.

14:55So this was a big, big case.

15:01They bring the body in. They run the body's fingerprints. They start cross-referencing all the missing persons cases that are active right now. And the body belonged to a father of two and husband, Hitoshi Yura. Hitoshi had been found brutally slain in the Love Motel's bathroom. And there's so many questions like, who killed him? Why did they kill him? And what is a family man doing in a Love Motel bathroom? Hitoshi Yura was said to be a very kind man. more of a low-key member of the community and i think that's very interesting so i realized that each culture they have their own way of saying that someone was nice never did anything strange or bad in the u.s these types of cases i feel like it's always oh you know they were your girl next door they were so normal they were perfectly normal suburban all american they lit up the room when they walked in in japan i always see this with cases they're described as never causing issues.

15:55Law abiding. Yes. Like I just thought it's so interesting because Japan and even Korea, there are cultures that are heavily frowned upon when you inconvenience people around you. But people said, no, Hitoshi was actually super nice and law abiding. If you were lost in the neighborhood, you might want to ask Hitoshi where you are. He just seems so approachable, very friendly. And this is crazy, but he was 62 years old. He does not look 62. People said that he easily passes for 40. I saw pictures, probably 40, yeah. I wouldn't even say 50. I mean, he looks really, really young. A lot of people said that his energy itself was young too.

16:33He seemed very fun to be around. Now, side note, before I show you pictures of him, I do need to preface that there is only one confirmed photo of him right now that is circulating where he is dressed in masculine clothes. Now, the rest of the pictures depict him wearing feminine clothing and wearing makeup. I'm still going to use he him pronouns because there's no indication that he identified as a woman. He just liked to wear makeup and dress in more, quote, feminine clothing when he went out for the night. He usually only wore feminine clothing and makeup when he went out for either big events, big parties, when he went to the clubs and bars.

17:08And that kind of becomes a point of contention later on because we have no idea if Hitoshi's wife knew that he was dressing up and going to these types of parties at night or if it was all done in secret. And it has nothing to do with the type of clothing he's wearing but just you know marriage who knows about this who doesn't Hitoshi's friends would later say he would go out dressed in a bit more feminine attire meet girls at clubs specifically in the red light district of Sapporo and bring them back to love motels again we don't know if this is an arrangement that his wife was okay with but it does seem like this was Hitoshi's way of letting loose, dancing, having fun, just escaping from his daily life and making new friends.

17:53He's really social. Like when he went out, it's like he was in his element. He's living purely in that moment. May 28th, 2023. Hitoshi hits up a club in the red light district and that's where he runs into Runa. There are videos from that night of them dancing on each other. And the club itself is really packed. It feels very lively. If you're just listening, I'm going to describe what the CCTV camera footage is showing. Hitoshi and Runa are kind of off on the corner dancing along. Honestly, it looks more like they're hugging than anything else. It's like they're hugging and swaying to the music.

18:30A few key takeaways. It seems super mutual. Runa seems to be enjoying Hitoshi's company and netizens have stated it actually seems like Runa is the more clingy one. Her arms are around Hitoshi's neck and she's smiling a lot. She's, you know, putting her head on his chest, leaning up and kind of snuggling her face into the crook of his neck. Meanwhile, Hitoshi is kind of standing there engaging with her, hugging her back. I mean, his body language doesn't indicate that he's uncomfortable, but Runa is definitely the one that's actively hugging him. Is this the one that the dad was standing off? Yes, like 20 feet away.

19:07Her dad is standing, staring at them while holding her jacket. It is so odd. And he's standing and there's dancers all around him, like club goers, dancing, swaying to the music. And he's standing still. He's not even pretending to sway to the music. He's not even trying to fit in. This is so weird. Yes. So creepy. I've never heard this type of, you know, relationship. Yeah. That's odd. We're going to get into some theories about this relationship later, but it is very odd. and Runa and Hitoshi's, their first encounter, it seems very flirtatious. Netizens stated that at times it seems like Runa is almost kissing Hitoshi's neck on the dance floor.

19:47Again, her dad is like right there watching. One moment they're having a good time, until they're not. Everything else going forward about this night in question are just pure speculations. It is speculated that after they leave the club, Runa and Hitoshi were hitting it off so well on the dance floor, they decide, let's get to know each other in a quieter setting. They rent a room in a local love motel. We don't know if Runa's dad went in with them, if he waited outside for his daughter to be done. Wait, so do we know if they rent a room or not? They did. Oh, they did go to a hotel. But we don't know if her dad came in the room, if her dad was waiting in the car outside the hotel, or if her dad was like, oh, well, I'm just going to go home, call a cab home.

20:28Okay, we don't know who went in there. Yes, I imagine it was just Runa and Hitoshi. Okay. So the two, Runa and Hitoshi, went to a local love motel, and it's alleged by Runa and her family that Hitoshi assaulted her that night. According to Runa's grandfather, the family believed Hitoshi was wearing more feminine clothing, not because he wanted to, not because he liked it, but because it was easier for young women to let their guard down around him if he was dressed in that way. Now, I don't think that we need to put a disclaimer here, but I'm just going to put one just in case. This is just an allegation from Runa's side of the family.

21:04We don't even know if there's an ounce of truth to this. But even if there is, I don't think that this should reflect badly on people who wear clothing that might not fit society's expectations of them or their gender. Like who really defines feminine clothing or masculine clothing? Like who's allowed to wear makeup and who's not? But this allegation has become a very big part of the case, so I can't not mention it. Runa seems to allege that Hitoshi lured her to the love motel, then assaulted her. There's an even wilder allegation thrown in there that Hitoshi recorded the assault and was planning on blackmailing Runa and her family with it later on.

21:40Again, these are all just allegations as of right now. Either way, Runa must have told her parents about it because they go into full lockdown mode after that night. Do you think that you would notice if your neighbor's daily habits changed? Like even just a little. Neighbor always washes their car in their driveway on Sundays. Now suddenly they start doing on Saturdays. Do you think, oh, maybe their off days changed? Or do you think, oh, maybe they're holding someone captive and they only have someone to watch that person in their basement on Saturdays? Would you even notice? You're like, no, absolutely not.

22:15So the Tamura family's neighbors were observant, but they very much followed the Japanese culture of minding their own business. But it was kind of hard. Dr. Tamura was just being straight up creepy. It's like he was on a one-man neighborhood watch situation. Every day, he would stand at his front door eating a cup of ramen while staring intently down the street. It made neighbors very nervous when they walked past his house. Other times, he'd be sitting in his car that was parked facing the street level. He would be eating a full bento box in his car, just staring, not on his phone, not listening to music, not listening to a podcast, staring onto the street.

22:59All day? All day. Neighbors felt like it's like he's waiting for someone or like waiting for something. We don't know. And this once friendly Dr. Tamura, they would wave and he just had this dark expression on his face. It was weird. He said he was waiting for Hitoshi to show up. It is said that Runa's parents reached out to Hitoshi after hearing about the alleged assault and made a deal with him. You stay out of Runa's life, never contact her again, never talk to her again, and we will stay out of yours. It's not clear what the repercussions would have been if he broke those said, quote, rules, but I imagine it would have something to do with getting the police involved.

23:43Hitoshi agreed, okay, I'm never going to contact Runa anymore. But it's again alleged that he broke that promise. And allegedly, he started coming over to the Runa family home. And look, I have no idea if this is true or how he would even know their address. But allegedly, he started showing up uninvited and it put the whole family on edge. They wanted to do something to protect their daughter, their precious baby. So after about a month of this, a month and a half, it seems like the family thought, you know what? We can't keep living like this. we gotta do something about it like what is he showing up for they don't say i mean we don't even know if he showed up okay so they're saying he's harassing them yeah okay on july 1st 2023 right around 11 p.m two people walked into the love hotel hotel let's a young woman and an older woman.

24:40At first glance, that's what the receptionist is most likely picking up. The young woman was dropped off by someone who appeared to be her father, an old man, met the older woman outside, and the two entered together and checked in. The young woman was wearing summery light-colored clothing. The older woman looked like they had just come from a party. They had on this shimmery NASA crop top, straight styled black bob, nails painted bright red to complete the look. I mean, the two did look interesting next to one another, mainly for the age gap, okay? But the receptionist is not here to judge. As long as everyone's legal, what does it matter?

25:16The receptionist checks them in, hands them their hotel key, and motions, that way's the elevator. We don't know exactly what happened in there, but judging by the crime scene and the timeline, we can kind of piece together a series of events. And this is all still speculation as of right now. The two, Hitoshi and Runa, went into the hotel room and Runa was somehow able to get Hitoshi naked. It's likely that she told him that she had a special surprise for him, wanted him to get into the bathtub and wait for her. It's also speculated that she might have blindfolded him and handcuffed him, telling him that it was for some sort of fantasy that she had.

25:53Then she presumably ran back out into the pink room, changed into a raincoat, a raincoat, squeezed her hands into a pair of rubber gloves, and now that she was dressed for the occasion, she took a knife, went into the bathroom. She stabbed him multiple times, primarily on his neck area. Did she bring a knife? Yes. She brought a suitcase full of stuff. Hotoshi fell into the tub, bleeding profusely. Runa used this opportunity, allegedly, to, if she hadn't already, handcuff him behind his back and stab him some more. Once he was dead, she would start removing his head. From there, it's theorized that Runa starts cleaning up all the blood.

26:42And she is meticulous about this. There was not a speck of blood left behind. And then she takes his phone, ID, clothes, and his head in the suitcase with her. At 2 a.m., so approximately three hours after initially checking in, Runa comes back down to the front desk. But this time, she's not seen wearing light-colored clothes. She's seen in new clothes, all black. She's got on a blonde wig and a black fedora on. She returns her key to the front desk and tells her, thanks, I'm going to head out first. The receptionist nods and watches as she's rolling out her suitcase and gets into a car that was waiting out in front for her.

27:21It was the same man that dropped her off just three hours ago. It was Runa's dad. He was going to be driving his daughter to a club so she could party. while a suitcase with a decapitated head sat in his trunk. Wow. So I guess the question here is like, does the dad know, right? Wow. Dr. Tamura and Runa never got rid of Hitoshi's head. They went home and put his head in their bathtub. So he knows. He knows about the head. I mean, he might try to argue that he found out after the fact, but he knows about the head. Yeah. Yeah. Now, a big part of this case, or at least the online discourse, is about an alleged video of said head in the bathtub.

28:10Allegedly, there is a video that police have found that shows Runa playing with the decomposing head. She was allegedly poking at the eyeball, squishing the eyeball around, swirling it around in the eye socket, and even squeezing it. And allegedly, this video was filmed by her dad. There are other reports that state that there's also a video from inside the hotel room from when the murder actually took place. It's alleged that the video shows Runa holding a knife in her hand and attacking Hitoshi from behind. It's believed that she set up a camera to record the actual murder. These were all later found in the Tamura household.

28:47Which, side note, the house has been dubbed by the press as the garbage mansion. So it does seem like after this murder, after the head being in this family bathtub for three whole weeks, that's how long it was in there, there was a shift in the energy in the house. The family was starting... Wait, you're saying they didn't catch them for three weeks? Three weeks. I mean, they were starting to show signs that something was not right. Even as a psychiatrist, I guess it's something that you can't hide well. A lot of therapists stated, disorderly home, disorderly mind. neighbors started noticing within those three weeks that trash started piling up outside the house boxes were just thrown in the front lawn like imagine opening up a package throwing out your box onto the front lawn you don't even break it down don't even recycle it just throw it out the interior of the house became some sort of hoarder's paradise there were boxes stacked up to the ceiling it hasn't been explicitly revealed yet how the police were able to track katoshi's murder to the Tamura family.

29:45But I can't imagine that it was that difficult. You know, I don't think Runa had the greatest undercover disguise. Yeah. And once they searched that whole family home, every single person in there was arrested. The sweet gray haired older Japanese man that you could pass on any street in Japan and think, you know what, that guy looks nice. Dr. Tamura, he was arrested. His wife arrested. Oh, the wife was in the house too? The wife was in the house and there was a head in the bathtub. So she knew about this? Yeah, she knew. I mean, that head was decomposing and it was very smelly. The thing is, it seems really clear, at least in my personal opinion, that Runa murdered Hitoshi.

30:27And it seems to me that her dad was in on it. He helped her. He dropped her off at the motel, picked her back up. And I think that her mom most likely had the least involvement. But we can't say for certain if she even knew about the crime before it happened or they just walked in through the front door with a head in a suitcase and now she's got to deal with it. We don't really know. But it's clear that she knew about the head in the bathtub. Thankfully, all three of them would be arrested for murder. And if the head in the tub was not a slam dunk on this arrest, there was more evidence uncovered.