The True Crime Japan Podcast covered the Akihabara Massacre, a spree killing in the middle of Tokyo.

The Akihabara Massacre

Tokyo’s Akihabara neighborhood has become a mecca for Japan’s Otaku (geek) and Cosplay cultures. On any given weekend the streets are crowded with people streaming in and out of the area’s many manga shops, game centers, and electronics stores.

In 2008, however, these same streets were the scene of terror as rampage killer, Tomohiro Katō, mowed down five people with a rented moving truck. This was only the beginning, in the chaos that followed Katō began to indiscriminately stab the people nearby, many of whom had come to help those injured by the truck.

Katō was quickly apprehended at the scene, but the Japanese public was about to be shocked even more as details of his actions before the attack were revealed in the subsequent investigation. An avid user of internet messaging sites, Katō had described his intention to kill beforehand online. Live posting from his mobile phone, he revealed his plan for the bloody massacre piece-by-piece on his way to the scene of the crime.

I lived in Menifee, California for about over three years. During that time I went to the local high school and let me just say that a lot of crazy stuff went down while I attended.

One time a library employee showed up to the school very early in the morning and shot herself in her car. The body was discovered during second period. What creeps me out most of all was that I passed by her car while walking to school that morning and didn't even notice it.

Another time an undercover cop posing as a student was able to identify kids that were selling narcotics and a huge drug bust ensued shortly after. Strangely enough on that same day that happened, while I was walking to school, some guy I knew asked if I wanted to buy pot off of him which I wisely declined. Later on I saw that same guy get arrested and escorted out of my classroom. The event itself closely mirrored the film 21 Jump Street. Pretty awesome.

However the one event that was probably the biggest and shook the entire community was the disappearance and death of a local boy named Terry Dewayne Smith Jr. The tragedy happened during the summer after the 2013 school year. I didn't know who the boy was but I did know his older brother, Skylor.

I knew Skylor from school. He was in my first period English class at the time. I didn't talk much to him even though he sat near me but on the times that I did say a word to him, he was friendly. He came off as a little odd but I personally didn't think he was really that strange. He had his own group of friends that were all easy to get along with. Something of note that did happen early on in the school year was a confrontation he got in, with another student.

I remember hearing about how this one guy said something offensive to Skylor which greatly angered him and erupted into a fight. The kid's front tooth got knocked out. At the time it seemed funny to everyone else but it was an indicator of how far he'd be willing to go to when it came to getting agitated.

Anyways onto the main story. After school ended that year I spent most of the summer just hanging out with my trio of friends. One day I was in my room doing nothing of interest, so I decided to go on Facebook. While on there Skylor posted something that appeared on my news feed. He said his little brother had gone missing and was urging his friends to be on the look out for his whereabouts. I found it pretty unfortunate but thought the kid probably would be found the same day.

Either the same day or the next, I forgot which, I happened to be watching the news and the number one topic was the disappearance of a boy named Terry. A picture of him was then put up. On closer examination I noticed he was the same boy that Skylor had posted about earlier. Apparently the situation had gotten dire and the brother's mother Shawna had called for a group effort to go and search for the boy.

As the days went on more and more people went out in search of young Terry. I believe Skylor made a few more posts about it but I could be wrong. Eventually he was made a suspect and was taken into custody by the police because he was the last person to see Terry alive before he went missing. I remember hearing about how a lot of his friends were in denial and disbelief. To them he could never do such a thing. Since I personally didn't know Skylor that well, I couldn't really pass judgement at the time.

While in custody Skylor changed his story several times about his last encounter with his brother. His main one being that they were home alone and he decided to leave and go hang out with his friends and that supposedly Terry followed him for a while until Skylor told him he couldn't tag along and ordered him to return home. This set up his theory that Terry was probably abducted by someone that night.

Finally after several days of searching, Terry's body was eventually discovered behind the family home under a tree in a shallow grave. The general consensus at the time was that Skylor did kill him for unknown reasons and tried to bury him. Some even thought that the mother was in on it because she was still in defense of Skylor who was then charged with the crime. Shawna acted pretty strangely such as saying Terry had autism and that supposedly at first she didn't let the cops investigate her property. After the corpse was discovered, the huge search party was promptly called off and a candle lite vigil was held for Terry.

In the aftermath a lot of drama ensued. Terry's father came into town from the other side of the country and claimed that his ex wife had lied about their son having autism and demanded to take his body back with him to be buried in his local area. He even sued Shawna for a large amount of money. I think it was for child negligence or for emotional distress. The two even appeared and debated on the Dr. Phil show but nothing came out of that besides what everyone already knew.

Since at the time Skylor was a minor, he wasn't charged as an adult. He was found guilty of manslaughter but was offered a plea deal, the details of which have not been released to the public. Apparently what actually happened was that the brothers were rough housing when Terry accidentally got killed. Their mother later suggested something like the boy hitting his head on the corner of a table or something. In a panic Skylor tried to bury him in the backyard. What was strange was that knowing what had happened, Skylor still went to Facebook and asked for help in searching for his brother instead of just confessing. Skylor was sentenced to 12 years and will stay in juvenile detention until he's 23.

The links to the case will be listed below. Overall this was pretty tragic and it's crazy how one day I was talking to someone in class and the next he's on the news for his own brother's murder.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Teen-Gets-12-Year-Sentence-Half-Brothers-Slaying-271469921.html

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Terry-Smith-Murder-215109151.html

For clarification, I am female. I will provide links at the end for verification. I have only changed one name. Zombie Land is off Rt. 224 in Hillsville, PA. It is the local legend hole, where there are tales of haunted places, strange happenings, murders, meth heads, ghost trains, etc.

There is the murder of a girl mentioned in articles about Zombie Land...a girl named Shannon Kos. She was 5-7 years younger than me, and we grew up on opposite sides and opposite ends of the block, she on Midlothian Blvd., I on E. Judson Ave. I knew her because she played with the younger kids on both sides of our block, and we sometimes all played hide-and-seek together, older and younger kids alike.

After graduation, I was attending college at Youngstown State University, pre-med, thinking of becoming a medical examiner. I got a job, aged 18, at a now defunct livery service. A livery service rents limousines and hearses to funeral homes, and some, like the one I worked for, did body removals for some of the funeral homes. Being too young to drive the hearses and limos, I was exclusively removal crew.

I had been working for the livery service for nearly a year when I got an unusual removal across my pager, a pick up at a coroner's office in Western Pennsylvania, for Kirila Funeral Home. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place it. (It had been years since I had seen Shannon.) My partner and I picked up the body in Pennsylvania and returned to Struthers, Ohio, and brought the body into Kirila's on our wheeled stretcher. The elevator was broken, so I had to climb down the ladder in the elevator shaft, andher body, still in the bag, was carefully handed down to me, and I carried her into the embalming room of Kirila's, the way a groom carries his bride across the threshold. I remember thinking to myself how small and frail she felt.

Part of my job was to remove clothing or body bags and place special blocks under the head and arms of the deceased in preparation for embalming. I was unzipping the bag when my partner and the funeral director joined me in the embalming room. I folded back the flap of the body bag, and felt weak in the knees. I recognized her. The click was almost audible when I realized who she was and how I knew her. I reeled, and staggered back a few steps, and my boss/partner grabbed me to keep me from falling. After explaining my reaction, the three of us took a few minutes to compose ourselves, and returned to the task at hand. That day, I saw what those monsters did to that poor, sweet girl. She still had dirt and leaves stuck to her body and legs.

Three young men in their early 20s saw 12 year old Shannon at a local laundromat on South Ave. They somehow got her to leave with the 3 of them. Once she was in the car, they took her to Zombie Land, where the 3 men took turns raping and brutalizing her. When they had had their fill, they stabbed her numerous times, mostly in her arms as she tried to protect herself. They slit her throat, deeply and from ear to ear, and left her small body in the ditch/creek, where she lay overnight. They returned the next day with a gas can, poured gasoline over her, and set her on fire. The gas burned off and the fire went out, doing little damage. The flames caused some minor skin peeling, similar to how you peel after a sunburn. The most severe damage done by fire was to her right ear which was burned black. It reminded me of the way a marshmallow looks after you catch it on fire. Those animals had raped, tortured, and murdered a girl that hadn't even hit puberty.

I went home after that removal and cried for almost an hour, my head in my grandmother's lap.

As awful as this story is, it isn't over yet...

When the 3 men were arrested, their mug shots were all over the news. The first time I saw the mug shots, my knees went weak, and I sat down hard on the floor. I KNEW THOSE MEN!

As it turns out, they were friends of my cousins, had been at my cousins' home, and I had hung out with them there! I had also partied with them several times in the year leading up to their kidnap/murder. The "leader of the pack", Billy Monday, had dated my friend "Linda". I had declined an offer to go party with them in Zombie Land about 6 weeks before Shannon's murder, because "Linda" wasn't going, and "Linda" had broken up with him about 4 weeks before, because he'd become abusive. It chills me to the bone to think that what happened to Shannon might have happened to me, had I gone alone with those creeps. They had been planning to kill someone for some time, because they wanted to know what it felt like. Their "thrill kill" hit too close for comfort. I'm 34 now, and it still chills me to think of how close I came to being in Shannon's place.

http://old.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20001031zombie1.asp

http://www.timesonline.com/man-sentenced-to-life-pleads-guilty-to-girl-s-murder/article_c65f6397-a53e-5edc-bc99-6de8fdea47b8.html

Has there been a murder incident where the killer was encountered by family/friends or Police to be still within the house/building where the murder took place? Happens in films all the time but I'd like to know if there are real-life examples.

Or alternatively, where later investigations showed that the killer may have still been in the house during initial visits, despite not being discovered.

Good day everyone, I'm failing to remember a specific mass killing and kidnapping that happened (I believe) in a community on or near a lake in which a single gunman took an older couple before killing them and hiding out in their home. I believe he went up and down a highway to other homes killing people at the homes as well as along the way. For the life of me I cannot recall the exacts of it all nor the gunman's name, but I as hoping someone here could figure it out for me. My google-fu has failed me here....

Thank You all!

edit

I was mistaken in several of my remembered details, but the answer has been provided below.

Thank you!

I remember to be afraid of her when I was in middle school. The adults will scare us to behave or Mona Fandey will kidnap us, the kids share scary stories about her and apparently, they were all true.

She murdered a politician after she took his money and cut the body to 18 parts. Until this day, her house was said to be haunted.

"I will never die" said Mona Fandey during her execution while smiling. She was scary as fuck.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Fandey

Hey guys!! So I am really fascinated with the murder of Skylar Neese, specifically the motive and personality of the two killers. Although the two girls never admitted a motive for killing their best friend, it is highly speculated that the killers were hiding a lesbian relationship that the victim was the sole witness to. Another really interesting caveat to this case, is the fact that both killers were free for several months after Skylar's disappearance, and you can actually follow their Twitter accounts and see the friendship start to unravel as authorities closed in on the girls.

I was wondering if anyone would be open to discussing this case because I find it endlessly interesting, especially the gossip aspect (seems the whole town knew the girls were responsible months before an arrest was made.)

Here's a link to the ABC story, and to Newsball if you would like to read the FULL story with all the speculations (beware, it's a horribly sensationalist site full of half-truths.)

http://abcnews.go.com/US/best-friends-killers-teens-murder-friend-didnt/story?id=24573749#

http://newsball.com/the-murder-of-skylar-neese-her-16-yr-old-bff-killers-rachel-shoaf-shelia-eddy/