Draft:Mai Sato Murder Case

Mai Sato (佐藤麻衣, Sato Mai) (1988 – 6 July 2003) was a Japanese high school student who mysteriously disappeared and was murdered. Her case has been one of Japan's most unusual cases, due to the nature of her disappearance and her murder. Perpetrators of her murder were never caught. Her case is also known as the "Festival Mystery" (フェスティバルミステリー).

Background
Mai Sato was born to a Japanese mother and a Jordanian father in Tokyo. She lived with her mom and her elder brother in Nishi Takenotsuka, Adachi, Tokyo. Her Jordanian father lived in Osaka. Her father used to stay separately because of job and used to visit family occasionally. Mai also visited Amman, capital city of Jordan, together with her father twice for extended periods of time. In 2003, she was a first year high school student at Reno High School, Tokyo. After entering high school, she got a part time job at clothing store in Soka Station. She was described as being kind and hardworking, by her colleagues. She was also well reputed for her good behaviour with the customers. As described by her friends, she was a very popular girl in school. She was also well known for her helpful, kind, friendly and cheerful demeanor.

On Sunday, 6 July 2003, which was a weekend, so she planned to enjoy the day with her friends. Her mother and brother were not present at home that day. They went to Mai's grandparents home at Miyagi Prefecture. Mai wanted to attend them in few days but her father came from Osaka to take care of her and the apartment. Right around 12 p.m, she said that she will be back at just past 8 pm and left home that day. This was the last thing she said to her father. She travelled from Takenotsuka Station to Soka Station. She had a 20 years old female coworker with her. They had a part time job and ate lunch together at a fast food restaurant. They enjoying each other's company. Again at 6pm they ate something. There they travelled from the North Soka Station to Koshigaya Station West. They enjoyed the beauty of the sight and did some shopping. At a store of nearby station, she bought some clothes like matching black top and a pant (sportswear). She bought the clothes and the shopkeeper handed her a red plastic bag. Mai wanted to wear this cloth so she changed her cloth and put her old clothes in that red bag instead. After shopping, she and her co-worker returned to Koshigaya Station and got into the train, going in the direction of eastern Tokyo. But after two stops, her co-worker got off at Shinden Station. While giving their farewells, Mai informed her that she was going to meet a friend.

Mai got out of Yatsuka Station, 200 meter east to the station was the Sezaki Sengen Shrine which was her destination. People didn't often visit this place. But at that evening night, a summer night festival was going on and there was a huge crowd of people. She decided to join the festival and soon after leaving the festival, she mysteriously disappeared.

Disappearance from the festival
thumb| Sezaki Sengen Shrine

Japanese summer festivals are a major part of Japanese culture, where people unite and enjoy. It's a great opportunity for family and friends to unite and celebrate. Mai Sato also initially planned to meet an old friend of hers, from junior high school in the Summer Festival that was being held at the Sezaki Sengen Shrine.

She initially planned to meet her friend at 7 p.m at the Shrine festival, but her friend couldn't join because of a sudden change in plans. So she called her other friends if they could join her but some were unable to come and some missed her calls. She was in a very crowded area. In the end she gave up and decided to enjoy things alone. She was an optimistic person after all, as described by her family and friends. Then while passing, she was seen talking to a woman in red. After that, she roamed around the festival fair taking place. She enjoyed the festival fair and came across a shaved ice stall right at 8 p.m. She helped a 17 years old girl who was running it. She had a conversation with the stall girl. In a short time, she became a friends with her. Mai asked the girl about when she will close the stall and upon hearing the answer, Mai said, "I will help you out, because you are kind". Mai worked at the shop for free, also handled the customers nicely and helped to shave the ice. She helped that girl upto 9 pm. Then suddenly she got a phone call. The call was brief but due to the huge crowd she didn't hear anything. So after hung up, she decided to leave the stall immediately. Before leaving she told the stall girl that- " I want to thank you ". With that, they exchanged contacts and the stall girl asked her to contact her again.

Then she left the crowd through the exit. After walking some path she saw a convenient store. While talking to someone on phone, she bought a drink and sat outside. According to people who saw her, they told that she was seen sitting at a stair beside convenient store and waiting for someone's call. Sadly this was the last confirmed detail by eye witnesses. After that she was never seen by her parents or friends. Nobody saw her alive again. Her parents tried to call her but her phone was not answered. All of a sudden at 10 pm the phone was switched off. They contacted her friends but they knew nothing and the reality started taking a point for the worse for Mai's family. A missing complaint report was lodged to the police and immediately the police started looking for her.

Murder and investigation
Three days after she was missing, in around 9:45 am, Goka town in Ibaraki Prefecture on July 9, 2003, approximately 50 km away from where Mai was last seen, is when a local resident passing by the road saw the dead body of Mai Sato, lying in an unusual shape on a irrigation hole in a Japanese hiragana character 'く' ( 'Ku' ) shape. When he realised the situation, he immediately called the police. The Ibaraki criminal investigation officers came and bought media with them. When the media broadcasted the news her family got to know about her death. Without any delay went to Ibaraki to confirm their daughter. Their greatest fear came true. It was none other than their daughter. The doctor after examining got to know that she passed due to strangulation with rope, also there were bruises in her hand and upper leg with bare hand. Strangely she didn't have any self-defense marks on her body. No other DNA was found in her body. Experts told that this can be a surprise attack of some kind possibly. She was found on the same dress sportswear but some things were missing like the red plastic bag, blue rolex watch, bag and a purse with money also a mobile phone. Surprisingly an important clue came in front of all that her white socks were completely clean free from dirt despite of missing shoes. It seemed like she entered someone's home as her socks were clean. Well the police investigated the persons whom she met each by one but nothing found out. Due to technological lacking of that time, her mobile phone location were unable to be located. As the investigators were not finding anything so they decided to reveal some things about her, like the dress, watch, bag that they found with her body. Still they got nothing much information. They also made posters and put on everywhere also dustributed to people over there. The police tried to investigate in so many ways also leaked a footage of her but no such important clue came out. The footage was also found after 19 years incident on June 29, 2015. In that footage it was just shown that she was buying a drink and talking to someone over phone. Unfortunately, this was the last information the police got.

Aftermath
This case has remained one of Japan's most unusual and mysterious murder cases. Due to the case remaining unsolved for years, it has also brought controversy surrounding the police investigations. Many among the public and media have criticized the police for their incompetency in not being able to solve the case.