RIME
Murdered 7-year-old girl told ambulance crew attacker was ‘adult man’
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at 11:49 EDT
[Yuzuki Unose]
Yuzuki Unose
KOBE — A 7-year-old girl who was fatally stabbed Tuesday in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture, told ambulance crew just before her death that her assailant was an “adult man,” the city’s fire department said Wednesday. A police investigation found that the suspect stabbed Yuzuki Unose in two places from the front with a cutting tool, police said.
According to the investigation, Yuzuki was stabbed just before she entered her house when she returned home on her bicycle from a park about 300 meters away, police said, adding they believed the killer either waited for her near the entrance or followed her from the park.
Yuzuki returned home alone from the park after she was told by the mother of a classmate that she should head home as it was getting late. That was around 6 p.m. Tuesday, just before she was stabbed, police said.
The bicycle that the girl used was parked properly at a bicycle parking area next to the house. Yuzuki was found lying on a low stairway that connects the street and the entrance, police said.
Police have yet to discover any weapons. They are working to discern the specific type of cutting tool used in the attack.
Police also said that the carcass of a beheaded cat was placed several meters ahead of Yuzuki’s house a year ago and that they will investigate to determine whether it is related to the girl’s murder.
The site is about 1 kilometer west of Befu Station on a Sanyo Electric Railway Co line, with a junior high school and an elementary school nearby.
Yuzuki’s mother, Erika Mima, 27, and her father are divorced. They had been living with Erika’s father. Yuzuki’s mother alerted the police at around 6:05 p.m. Tuesday after finding her outside. Emergency workers found Yuzuki bleeding from her abdomen and chest and took her to hospital but she was confirmed dead about 1 hour and 40 minutes later, police said.
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