TW: No grave details, but the mentioning of graphic topics that could be considered unreadable for some readers (kidnap, rape, torture, and abuse).
After the four boys (Minato, Miyano, Ogura, and Watanabe) ransacked Furuta’s backpack, discovered her home address, and threatened Furuta the four then proceeded to violate Furuta for the second time, yet this would be only their first time of many as a group. After fulfilling their disturbing desires, the four boys then smuggled Furuta into one of Minato’s family’s homes, where she would be kept for the entirety of her 44 days left alive.
At this time, Furuta’s parents had reported to the police about their missing daughter, but when the boys discovered this, they took it upon themselves to force Furuta into calling home to say that she had run away.
Now, in terms of hiding her abuse from Minato’s family, Minato would force Furuta to pose as his girlfriend. However, this fact would bother his family as they could recognize in Furuta that something was wrong, but yet again Minato used the name of the Yakuza to keep them quiet. His family remained in substantial ignorance of the horror that their son was up to in one of their own homes.
In the course of the aforementioned 44 days, Junko Furuta was violated by the boys, their friends, and other men over 400 times. They would use iron bars, scissors, skewers, fireworks, and lit lightbulbs to torture her, which eventually caused permanent damage to her internal anatomy, and left her unable to defecate or urinate properly. When they were not forcibly violating her, the boys forced her to do things like eat live cockroaches and drink her urine. They would also hang her from a ceiling and beat her with bamboo sticks, golf clubs, and iron rods until her whole body was racked with wounds and bruises.
The torment never ceased until Furuta was dead.
That isn’t even the most disheartening info about this case. The most heart wrenching information was that it all could’ve been prevented. There were two instances where the police were alerted on Furuta’s abuse, and yet both times the police failed to intervene.
In the first instance, a boy who had been invited to Minato’s house by Miyano arrived back home after witnessing Furuta’s torture and told his brother what was happening, The brother told their parents, and the parents contacted the police. The police did show up at the Minato residence, however, when told by the parents that there was no girl inside, they left. No further questions were asked.
For the second instance, it was Furuta herself calling the police, yet before she was able to get a word out , the boys had found her. She hung up the phone, but when the police called back, Miyano assured them it was all a mistake, and the police took their word on it. This instance caused the boys to get so furious that they doused Furuta’s legs in lighter fluid and set her aflame.
It was on January 4th when Furuta’s captors murdered her. Allegedly, Furuta had beaten the boys in a simple game of mahjong, and because of her win, they had become so maddened that it drove
them to torture her to death. The boys, scared of being convicted of murder, dumped her body in a 55-gallon drum, filled it with concrete, and put it in a cement truck.
Two weeks after her murder, the police arrested Miyano and Ogura on separate gang rape charges. During Miyano’s interrogation, the police slyly mentioned that there was an open murder investigation. Ogura automatically assumed that the police were talking about the murder of Junko Furuta and confessed, while Miyano told the police where exactly they could find the body. This was not the case that the police were referring to, however within a few days all four boys were taken into custody and charged.
The saddest part of this case is the lack of justice for Junko, as the boys recieved pretty light sentences:
Hiroshi Miyano: sentenced to 20 years
Shinji Minato: sentenced to 5 – 9 years
Jō Ogura: sentenced to 5 – 10 years
Yasushi Watanabe: sentenced to 5 – 7 years
All Junko Furuta’s killers have been released from prison, and many in Jaan feel as justice for this case has not been served and may never be.
Wow, that’s absolutely horrible. I can’t believe they were ever released. I’m so disgusted by the criminals in this story, and the parents for letting this happen. I hope she is resting peacefully.
This is so sad to see. The charges were way too small compared to the severity of their crimes. It’s also crazy to think about how the family didn’t know what was going on, and how the police never intervened.
I’m in shock reading this blog post caused not only the terrible treatment Furuta received, but also the fact that it was allowed to happen. The police should have gotten involved when they received that phone call. I wonder if the relatively short sentences were given only because Miyano confessed to the crime. If that’s not the reason, I wonder why they didn’t receive longer sentences.