Murder of Junko Furuta who lived in 44 Days of Hell | True Crime

Between November 1988 and January 1989, Japanese schoolgirl, Junko Furuta was tortured until she begged for death. When she finally died, her body was stuffed into an oil barrel and the drum was filled with concrete. Her body was found a year later in Tokyo.  

 

Junko was a sweet and humble girl who used to lived in Misato, Japan. She never drank nor smoke and she was well-loved by her classmates. Junko was a beautiful sixteen-year-old . Unfortunately, her beauty caught the eye of the school bully as well. When Hiroshi Miyano asked Junko out and she respectfully but firmly declined, this made him furious. 

Miyano was not used to being said no to. He was not only the school bully, but a known affiliate of the yakuza. The yakuza are essentially the gangsters of Japan, a huge crime organization known country-wide for their ruthlessness. Naturally, Miyano was set on revenge. 

On November 25, 1988, as Junko was biking home from her baito (part-time job), a random boy assailed her. Junko fell off her bike as the boy ran away and Miyano, “fortuitously” across the street, ran over to help her. Miyano offered to walk her home. Unsuspecting Junko accepted the offer. Little did she know, Miyano and three other high school friends were completing their plan to capture her.

That was the beginning of her 44 days of torture. She didn’t know her abductors, they had no grudge against her and there was nothing specific that they were after. They attacked her because they could, embarking on weeks of atrocities because they could, and because they wanted to.

To forestall a manhunt, the kidnappers coerced Furuta into calling her mother and telling her that she had run away from home, but was with “a friend” and was not in danger. He also browbeat her into posing as one of the boys’ girlfriends when the parents of the house where she was held were around, but when it became clear that the parents didn’t care either way, he dropped this pretext.

During her tutored of 44 Days she was sexually assaulted over 400 times.She was forced to drink her urine, fed cockroaches. Forced to masturbate,Forced to strip in front of others.Foreign objects were also inserted into her vagina/anus.

She was severely beaten up on Face countless times held against concrete ground and her Hands tied to ceiling and body used as a punching bag, Nose filled with so much blood that she can only breath through her mouth Dumbbells dropped onto her stomach Vomited when tried to drink water (her stomach couldn’t accept it).When she Tried to escape and she was punished by cigarette burning on arms Flammable liquid poured on her feet and legs.

Unable to walk properly due to severe leg burns Beaten with bamboo sticks Fireworks inserted into anus and lit, Hands smashed by weights and fingernails racked. Beaten with golf club Cigarettes inserted into vagina, Beaten with iron rods repeatedly and in Winter she was forced outside to sleep in balcony.Whenever she tried escaping or finding ways for help ,all the accused punished her by taunting her with a candle flame and finally dousing her legs in lighter fluid and set her on fire.

Hot wax dripped onto face Eyelids burned by cigarette lighter Stabbed with sewing needles in chest area .Heavy bleeding from vagina due to scissors insertion Unable to urinate properly Injuries were so severe that it took over an hour for her to crawl downstairs and use the bathroom Eardrums severely damaged Extreme reduced brain size.She begged to kill her and get over with her tortures.

Remains of Junko

 

On 4th January 1989, the boys challenged Junko to a game of Mahjong. Even in her brutalized state Junko beat the boys, and this sent them into a rage. They poured gasoline all over her and set her on fire again. Junko went into convulsive seizures that the boys thought she was faking. She died a few hours later. 

In order to get rid of Junko’s body, the boys put her corpse in a 44-gallon drum, filled it with cement, and discarded it in Tokyo. It wasn’t until about a year later that authorities located Junko. One day when they were questioning Miyano about a different girl, Miyano thought they had evidence about Junko and confessed to what they had done to her prematurely.  

Shockingly, because the boys were underage by Japanese standards (Hiroshi, 18; Jo, 18; Nobuharu, 16 ; Watanabe, 17) they were given lenient sentences. Miyano received a twenty year sentence, and others only seven. By now, all four boys have been released from jail and have not proven to have turned their lives around.