Case overview
The Kobe child murders (Japanese: 神戸連続児童殺傷事件, Hepburn: Kōbe renzoku jidō sasshō jiken) occurred in Suma, Kobe, Japan, on 16 March and 24 May 1997, when two children, ten-year-old Ayaka Yamashita (山下 彩花, Yamashita Ayaka) and eleven-year-old Jun Hase (土師 淳, Hase Jun) were murdered. The perpetrator, fourteen-year-old Shinichiro Azuma (東 真一郎, Azuma Shin'ichirō) used the alias Seito Sakakibara (酒鬼薔薇 聖斗, Sakakibara Seito) to write two messages to the public following the discovery of Hase's remains in May 1997, taunting police and threatening to commit more murders. [1]
As a juvenile offender, Azuma was prosecuted and convicted as "Boy A." On 10 February 1997, Shinichiro Azuma attacked two twelve-year-old sixth-grade students of Minami-Ochiai Elementary School, at around 16:35 near an apartment complex in Nakaochiai district. Azuma was arrested in June 1997 and confessed to the murder of Hase. [2]
