The Murder Of Junko Furuta

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On November 25th, 1988, in Tokyo Japan, Junko who had celebrated her 17th Birthday 3 day’s before, left her part time job and was on her way home. She never made it. She was kidnapped by a group of teenage boys, Hiroshi Miyano (now Hiroshi Yokoyama), Jō Ogura (now Jō Kamisaku), Shinji Minato and Yasushi Watanabe, who where wandering around the streets, with the intention of robbing and raping local women. The boys kept Junko captive in a house owned by the parents of Kamisaku in the Ayase district of Adachi, Tokyo.They made her pretend to be Kamisaku’s Girlfriend. That was the beginning of her 44 days of torture.

Day 1 to 11

Raped a number 400 times in total.

Forced to call her parents to tell them that she had ran away.

She was starved.

Made to eat cockroaches and drink urine.

Burned with cigarettes and lighters.

Fireworks set off in her ears, mouth and privet parts.

Foreign objects inserted into her privet parts.

Beaten a number of times.

Day 11 to 20.

Face jumped on, on a concrete floor.

tied up and used as a punching bag damaging her internal organs and not being able to breath out of her nose due to built of blood.

Dumbbells dropped onto her stomach which made her unable to drink water because of damage to her stomach.

Punished with cigarette burns for trying to escape.

Flammable liquid was poured on her legs and set alight. Bottle inserted into her privet parts causing injury.

Day 20 to 30

Beaten with Bamboo sticks. Lit fireworks inserted into her privet parts.

Hands smashed with weights.

Beaten with golf club.

Beaten with iron rods.

Forced to sleep outside on the balcony during freezing wether.

Skewers of chicken inserted into her causing bleeding.

Again, her legs were set on fire for trying to escape.

Day 30 to 40.

Eyelids burned with lighter.

Stabbed with sewing needles.

Left nipple ripped off with pliers.

Hot lightbulb inserted into her privet parts also scissors which caused heavy bleeding leaving her unable to urinate.

The brutality of the attacks drastically altered Furuta's appearance. Her face was so swollen that it was difficult to make out her features. Her body was also severely crippled and she had open sores and infections giving off a rotting smell that caused the four boys to lose sexual interest in her. As a result, the boys kidnapped and gang-raped a 19-year-old woman who, like Furuta, was on her way home from work.

Day 44

The four boys challenged Furuta to a game of Mahjong, which she is said to have won. Out of frustration, the boys beat her with an iron barbell, kicked and punched her, and placed two short candles on her eyelids, burning them with the hot wax. They made her stand, and struck her feet with a swinging stick. At this point, she fell onto a stereo and collapsed into a fit of convulsions. Since she was bleeding profusely, and pus was emerging from her infected burns, the four boys covered their hands in plastic bags taped at the wrists. They continued to beat her and dropped an iron exercise ball onto her stomach several times. They poured lighter fluid onto her thighs, arms, face, and stomach and once again setting her on fire. Furuta allegedly made attempts to put out the fire, but gradually became unresponsive. The attack reportedly lasted two hours. Furuta eventually succumbed to her wounds and died that day.

Less than twenty-four hours after her death, Nobuharu Minato's brother called to tell him that Furuta appeared to be dead. Afraid of being caught for murder, they wrapped her body in blankets and shoved it into a travel bag. They then put her body in a 55-gallon (208 liters) drum and filled it with wet concrete. Around 8:00 pm, they loaded and eventually disposed of the drum into a cement truck in Koto Tokyo. It was said that approximately 100 people knew about Junko Furuta's captivity, but either did nothing about it or themselves participated in the torture and murder. Most of the participants were friends of the teenage boys, who were low-ranking members of the Yakuza. On 23 January 1989, Hiroshi Miyano and Jō Ogura were arrested for the gang-rape of the 19-year-old woman they had kidnapped in December. On 29 March, two police officers came to interrogate them, as women's underwear had been found at their addresses. During the interrogation, one of the officers led Miyano into thinking he knew of Furuta's murder. Thinking that Jō Ogura had confessed to the crime, Miyano told the police where to find Furuta's body. The police found the drum containing Furuta's body the following day. She was identified via fingerprints. Despite the shocking brutality of their crime, the identities of the boys were sealed by the court since they were all considered to be juveniles at the time of the crime All four boys pled guilty to "committing bodily injury that resulted in death", rather than murder. In July 1990, a lower court sentenced Hiroshi Miyano,18 the alleged leader of the crime, to 20 years in prison. Nobuharu Minato,16 who originally received a four-to-six year sentence, was re-sentenced to five-to-nine years Yasushi Watanabe,17 who was originally sentenced to three-to-four years in prison, received an upgraded sentence of five-to-seven years. Jō Ogura 17 served eight years in a juvenile prison.