Police appeal for help over unsolved 2000 murder of 17-year-old boy

IBARAKI — Ibaraki prefectural police on Saturday appealed to the public for any information that might help them find four men who are suspected of killing a 17-year-old youth in a supermarket parking lot in Ushiku in May of 2000.

Police and the mother of the victim handed out flyers at a shopping mall in Tsukuba City, as well as railway stations in the vicinity of the crime scene, asking anyone with any information to come forward, TV Asahi reported.

Taiki Fujii, a construction worker, was in the parking lot with his girlfriend early in the morning on May 4, 2000, when four youths picked a fight with him. The gang beat Fujii, then robbed him and fled. The girl was unharmed. Fujii died nine days later from brain contusions.

Police circulated portraits of the four suspects, based on descriptions given by the victim’s girlfriend, but there has been no breakthrough in the case. Sketches of the four men are available on the prefectural police website.

Police displayed footage of a man believed to be involved in the incident on digital signage and distributed 500 flyers. Masayuki Yamada, head of the Ibaraki Prefectural Police Investigation Division 1, said, "We want this appeal to lead to the resolution of the case. Please share even the smallest piece of information."

Fujii’s mother, Yasuko, 68, handing out flyers at a shopping center in Tsukuba, asked the public to help with any information, no matter how trivial it may seem. She said: "Twenty-six years is a long time. I want the perpetrators arrested as soon as possible. But as time passes, I have a sense of crisis that the killers may not be caught.''

Anyone with any information is asked to call 0297-62-0110.

© Japan Today