FUKUI (TR) — The exoneration of a man who served seven years in prison for the brutal 1986 murder of a junior high school girl in Fukui City has left the victim’s grieving family desperate for answers, as the true killer remains at large, reports the Asahi Shimbun (May 10).
On the night of March 19, 1986 — the day of her middle school graduation — 15-year-old Tomoko Takahashi was savagely killed while home alone at her family’s municipal housing apartment. When her mother returned, she discovered a gruesome scene: her daughter had been stabbed and slashed approximately 50 times in the face, chest and torso.
Shoji Maekawa, 60, was convicted of the heinous crime and served a seven-year prison sentence. However, in August 2025 — 39 years after the murder — he was completely exonerated in a retrial.
The key to his long-overdue acquittal was an investigative report originally drafted in 1989. In a shocking revelation of investigative misconduct, the crucial document had been deliberately withheld from the court and kept hidden by authorities for 34 years.
“Maekawa was framed,” said Tomoko’s 58-year-old older sister, Hiroko Ohashi. “I cannot accept this. Where is the real killer? I wanted the police to conduct a proper investigation. If we don’t know who the real killer is, we’ll never know why my sister was murdered.”
Ohashi fondly remembers her younger sister as a smart and dependable girl who dreamed of visiting Tokyo Disneyland once she entered high school. Years after the brutal slaying, Ohashi and her mother made the trip to the theme park, bringing along a photograph of Tomoko to fulfill her dying wish.
Tragically, the real perpetrator may never face justice. Under the law at the time of the incident, the statute of limitations for murder was 15 years. Unless the killer fled overseas, the legal window for prosecution expired in 2001.
In the wake of the wrongful conviction, the Nagoya High Public Prosecutors Office announced on May 1 that it is launching a formal probe, which will include questioning the prosecutors involved in the botched original trial.
