New Year`s Double Murder a Brutal Beginning to 2018 in Tsukuba
By Avi Landau
According to the autopsy report, Koichi Kobayashi (77) and his wife Yoko (67) were killed sometime between December 30th 2017 and New Year`s Day 2018. Their bodies were discovered at 4:40 PM on the second story of their home in Tsukuba`s Higashi Hiratsuka neighorhood by their daughter and her husband – who say that the front door was locked when they arrived. The son-in-law called the 110 emergency hot-line and reported that they had discovered two people collapsed on the floor. Police quickly arrived on the scene and discovered the elderly couple dead.They had been badly beaten about the head and face with a blunt instrument of some sort (Mr. Kobayashi had defensive wounds as well- his arm had actually been broken by a blow). The official cause of death was massive blood-loss.
The Kobayashi`s lived alone in their home which is still secluded in the woods that still stand near the intersection where Nishi Odori
and Hiratsuka-sen (two of Tsukuba`s most important thoroughfares) meet – just behind the Byako-Tei Taiwanese Restaurant (and not far from Costco and the other large establishments that went up near their house after large tracts of forest were cleared).
Mr. Kobayashi was found face-down on a futon mattress in his bedroom, while his wife Yoko was laying face-up
out in the corridor. They were both in their pajamas (according to various news reports).
Nothing seems to have been disturbed in the home and the murder weapon was not found at the scene.
The last time anyone heard from the couple was around 6 PM on December 30th when Yoko spoke to her daughter by phone.
Neighbors have said that Yoko-san had spoken of her house having been burglarized in the past.
If you have any information call 0120-144-559
There seems to be at least one murder a year in the Tsukuba-Tsuchiura area – and we`ve gotten off to
a disturbing start already to 2018…..
See the TV news report on UTUBE
Hello Avi-san. There is no new information about this incident, but the Ibaraki Shinbun newspaper
gave some more details that you left out. The murdered wife was the second wife of her murdered husband. On the first day of January, one of her daughters came to visit and when no one responded she called her sister. That sister came to open the door.
Also, it was interesting that that newspaper, the local one, in contrast to the national media, emphasized that the couple were
not native Ibaraki people. It said that they had come from somewhere else, fifteen years ago. I guess they want to reassure the local people that true Ibarakians could never be involved in such a hoffific story. They also pointed out the second marriage aspect, re-emphasizing that the couple was not typical. It is scary to think the criminal is still free.