Mann, 45, serving life sentence for murder of girl in 2004, charged in second case

HYOGO (TR) – A 45-year-old man serving a life sentence for the murder of an elementary school girl in Okayama Prefecture two decades ago was arrested last week on attempted murder charges in a second case.

On September 28, 2006, at around 6:20 p.m., 45-year-old Kunihiko Katsuta is said to have repeatedly stabbed the second nine-year-old girl with a knife in the city of Tatsuno, seriously injuring her.

The girl suffered serious injuries that took two months to heal, police said Mainichi Shimbun (November 8).

During voluntary questioning by Hyogo Prefectural Police, he said he had been “looking around for girls.” He also admitted to stabbing the girl with a knife, but said he “had no intention of killing her.”

It was also revealed that he had stated that he had hugged another girl shortly before the incident. Police believe he was targeting girls he didn't know. Both girls were attacked on their way home from cram school and the police are carefully checking his statement.

On November 8, police sent Katsuta to the Kobe District Prosecutor's Office on suspicion of attempted murder. When he was taken to the office, he covered his face with a hood.

Murder of Yuzuki Unose

Katsuta is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of the first nine-year-old girl in the city of Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture in 2004.

Katsuta also made a statement to police indicating his involvement in the murder of a third girl, Yuzuki Unose.

In October 2007, Unose, then seven, was stabbed in the chest and stomach by an unknown assailant outside her home in Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture. The girl, who was in the second grade of elementary school, later died.

Since then, police have been unable to solve the case, which is being treated as a murder. However, it was revealed that Katsuta made statements implicating himself in the murder.

Police previously said Katsuta was also convicted and sentenced to prison for punching other girls in the stomach in 2000 and 2009.

“Not the perpetrator!”

After his arrest in the Tsuyama case, Katsuta sent a series of letters with three different colors to Fuji News Network.

In a November 2021 letter before his sentencing, he claimed he had nothing to do with the crime and called it a false accusation. However, he also wrote that he had behaved unusually towards young girls.

In this letter he confessed to stealing a girl's blouse in Tsuyama, strangling a girl in the city of Okayama, and stalking a girl in the city of Kurashiki.

In addition, he sent another letter to the broadcaster in October last year that included a description of Unose's murder. The text states that the Hyogo police believe he was behind the crime. “Naturally, [I’m] not the culprit!” he wrote.

According to investigative sources, the voluntary police questioning began after the verdict in the Tsuyama case was handed down in September last year. During this meeting, Katsuta initially denied involvement in the other two incidents in Hyogo Prefecture. It later emerged that as the questioning continued, he changed his statement and admitted his involvement.