True Crime
The Sasebo Slasher — Japan’s Youngest Killer
An eleven-year-old schoolgirl slits her best friend’s throat in cold blood
Tuesday, June 1, 2004, at Okubo Elementary School in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan would be unlike any other before it. At lunchtime that day, 11-year-old Natsumi Tsuji invited her classmate and friend, 12-year-old Satomi Mitarai, into an empty classroom where she promised to show her a new game.
Under the guise of walking her through how the game was to be played, Natsumi guided her to a chair, where she sat down and allowed Natsumi to remove her glasses and place them nearby. Satomi was told she was going to die, but she wasn’t bothered by this. Natsumi was known as a bit of a horror buff and so it was just assumed to be a part of whatever game she had in mind.
Natsumi told Satomi not to look and offered her a towel to go over her eyes, but Satomi declined. Instead, Natsumi covered Satomi’s eyes with one hand and pulled a box cutter out of her pocket with the other. She plunged the middle into Satomi’s neck and slit her throat, leaving her friend voiceless and unable to call for help. Next, Natsumi slit both of Satomi’s wrists. The girl fell to the floor to suffer in silence as she bled out on the floor below her.
