HOKKAIDO (TR) – Runa Tamura, 30, stands accused of decapitating a man at a love hotel in Sapporo City last year. By the time the crime was discovered, Tamura had taken the victim’s head back to her home.
Three weeks later, police found the head of the man at the Atsubetsu Ward residence of Tamura, who along with her parents were then taken into custody.
As the investigation unfolded, police learned that Runa was the ringleader of the crime. However, the police suspected that her father, 60-year-old Osamu, and mother, 61-year-old Hiroko, provided assistance.
Runa has been accused of murder and other crimes. Meanwhile, Osamu faces charges of aiding and abetting all of the crimes alleged of his daughter. Their trials have yet to begin.
However, Hiroko began appearing in court on June 4. She has been accused has been accused of aiding in the abandoning of a corpse and aiding in the mutilation of a corpse.
During the session at the Sapporo District Court on August 30, the prosecution revealed that Runa watched several horror movies days before carrying out the crime, which likely influenced how she carried out the act, reports Shukan Bunshun.
Killing spree on Halloween night
One was “Terrifier.” Released in the United States in 2016, it tells the story of Art the Clown, who goes on a killing spree on Halloween night.
The other was “Leatherface,” which hit theaters the following year. It is a work that follows the classic horror film “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974) and depicts the prequel to the birth of “Leatherface,” a killer who wears a mask made of human skin.
Defendants Runa and Osamu rented these horror movies from a video rental store in the city on June 21, 2023, which was 10 days before the victim was murdered.
According to the prosecution’s explanation, both movies contain scenes in which a human neck is cut, and they are very similar to the scene that Runa recorded on her camera when she killed the victim in the love hotel, meaning it is highly likely that she used them as inspiration for her crime.
Met at a club in Susukino
“Runa and the victim, a cross-dressing enthusiast, met at a club’s closing event in Susukino at the end of May last year,” a legal reporter tells Bunshun. “The two hit it off and went to a love hotel where they engaged in sexual intercourse several times, but during the final act, the victim did not use a contraceptive, which made Runa furious, saying that the victim had ‘broken his promise.’ This is said to be the beginning of the incident.”
On July 1, 2023, Runa lured the victim to the love hotel by pretending that an SM fantasy was to unfold. Dressed in a black dominatrix-style outfit that accentuated her body lines, she led the victim to the bathroom, blocked his vision with an eye mask, handcuffed him with his hands behind his back and prepared a handheld camera.
“The thing you need to reflect on most is breaking your promise to me,” she said as she wielded the knife.
She then repeatedly stabbed him in the neck. After killing him, she decapitated him with a saw.
Runa then hid the head in a suitcase and took it to the home in a car driven by Osamu. Once home, she peeled off the skin of the head with a blade and removed the eyeballs. She also asked Hiroko to film the mutilation of the head.
SM fantasy
Osamu and Hiroko claim that they were unaware of their daughter’s intent or plan to kill the victim. However, the prosecution feels otherwise.
“During the trial, the prosecution’s explanation of evidence revealed that before the incident, Osamu had searched the internet for “fingerprints can be erased with bleach” and “suitcase load capacity 100 kg.” For her part, Hiroko sent a Line message to Osamu asking, “By the way, will the GPS record of the car be saved?” She then deleted the message.”
According to the prosecution, both “Terrifier” and “Leatherface” contain scenes similar to what unfolded inside that hotel room on the night oF July 1, 2023.
The prosecution further argued that Osamu and Runa performed a “trial run” of the SM fantasy that the victim thought was in store for him that night at the Tamura family home around the time the films were rented.
“[Runa] told me to sit upright in the middle of the living room of our house, put my hands behind my back, and close my eyes,” Osamu told the court as a witness. “I was told to sit as if I was handcuffed and blindfolded. I felt something moving from behind, and I felt someone touching my cheeks and neck with a scarf.”
“Treated her parents like slaves”
Runa faces charges of murder, mutilation of a corpse, possession of a corpse and abandoning a corpse. Her father has been accused of aiding and abetting all four of those crimes.
Not only does the prosecution claim that both Osamu and Hiroko where aware of Runa’s murderous intent, it argues that their has maintained firm control over both of them since she was young, based on a report from Fuji News Network (Jun. 4) after Hiroko’s first hearing.
Luna stopped going to school in middle school.
“[Her parents] raised their daughter without getting angry. They bought her everything she wanted,” the prosecution said. “They couldn’t scold her. The house was overflowing with Luna’s things, Hiroko lived in a small space, and Osamu had no place in the house, so he spent his time in internet cafes.”
Hiroko would ask her daughter what she wanted and communicated with Osamu on Line.
“She called Runa ‘young lady’ and spoke to her in polite language. Runa told her father to sell her mother to a jukujo fuzoku business,” the prosecution said in referring to a brothel specializing in older women.
Osamu was her personal driver.
“She made him join him in all-nighters at game centers and other places. Runa was selfish and treated her parents like slaves,” the prosecution said.
Upon her exit from the love hotel with the head of the victim in the suitcase, she told the front desk that the victim would be leaving at 11 a.m.
“The head and other body parts were transported in the car driven by [Osamu], who was waiting outside. They were then taken home,” the prosecution said. “At home, the head was hidden in the bath, and Runa removed the skin from the head.”
Runa asked Hiroko to take a video of the desecration of the body with a video camera.
“Defendant Hiroko asked Osamu via Line to act as the cameraman. Osamu agreed and took the video. Runa told her mother that she wanted to show it to her father, and Hiroko sent defendant Osamu a Line message saying, ‘If you’d like, please take a look at my daughter’s work.'”
