Hiroshi Maue

Case record

Hiroshi Maeue ( 前上 博 , Maeue Hiroshi ) was born August 8, 1968. He was a Japanese serial killer.

He had an atypical sexual fetishism in which he could not achieve sexual excitement unless he strangled people. He lured each victim by offering to commit suicide with them. He suggested that both people end their lives using a charcoal burner in a sealed car, and he suffocated them with his bare hands.

He was called “Suicide Website Murderer”. Prosecutors called him a “lust murderer”.

Timeline

• August 8, 1968 — Hiroshi Maeue was born.
• February 2005 — Maeue suffocated Michiko Nagamoto, 25, after proposing a suicide together via email.
• February 19, 2005 — Police suspected Maeue killed Nagamoto inside a rented car after sending an e-mail asking to meet.
• February 23, 2005 — Nagamoto’s body was found and later identified through fingerprints.
• May 2005 — Maeue suffocated a male junior high school student and dumped the body in a mountain area in southern parts of Osaka Prefecture.
• June 2005 — Maeue suffocated a male college student and dumped the body in a separate mountainous area in southern parts of Osaka Prefecture.
• March 28, 2007 — A district court in Osaka sentenced Maeue to die by hanging.
• July 5, 2007 — Maeue retracted an accusation under the influence of Mamoru Takuma.
• July 28, 2009 — Hiroshi Maeue was hanged in Osaka, along with 25-year-old condemned criminal Yukio Yamaji.

Background

Hiroshi Maeue entered the Kanazawa Institute of Technology and asphyxiated his male friend. He dropped out in 1988.

Since his mid-20s, Maeue was arrested on several occasions for attempting to suffocate female passersby on streets.

The offence

Maeue murdered three people in 2005 after his release. The victims were members of an online suicide club and included:

• a 14-year-old boy,
• a 25-year-old woman, Michiko Nagamoto,
• a 21-year-old man, a male college student.

Maeue found victims through suicide websites and exchanged emails with them. Police suspected he proposed to Nagamoto that they commit suicide together, even though he apparently had no intention of killing himself.

Maeue suggested burning charcoal in a sealed car to kill themselves from carbon monoxide poisoning using a method recommended on websites. Instead, he tied Nagamoto up in a rented car and killed her by sealing her nose and mouth with his hands.

A statement attributed to Maeue included a quotation: “I wanted to watch a face in agony.”

After killing Nagamoto, Maeue went on to look for more victims on suicide websites and killed the boy and the university student. He allegedly dumped their bodies in nearby mountains and a dam.

Prosecutors said the serial killings involved strangulation and suffocation tied to sexual urges triggered by seeing a person being strangled and suffering. The court sentencing material described Maeue as persuading a 14-year-old junior high school student to join him in a suicide pact using charcoal stoves to produce deadly carbon monoxide, and then suffocated the victim near a mountain in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, in May 2005.

Investigation

Police found what appeared to be the partial remains of the junior high school student on a mountain slope where Maeue said he buried the body.

Police traced Maeue as a suspect by tracking down records of e-mails and the car rental contract.

Osaka police suspected Maeue had proposed to Nagamoto that they commit suicide together and that he abandoned her body in a mountain forest.

Arrest

Hiroshi Maeue was arrested late Friday on suspicion of killing a woman he met through a suicide website.

He was arrested on suspicion of suffocating Michiko Nagamoto, 25, in February.

A report described him as an employee at a temporary staff agency and stated that he confessed to killing two other victims who also believed he shared their desire to commit suicide.

Trial

In handing down the death sentence, presiding Judge Kazuo Mizushima pointed out the cruelty of the serial killings and the unlikelihood that Maeue could be rehabilitated.

The prosecutors demanded the death penalty and insisted he could pose the threat of a repeat offender because he could not control his sexual urges triggered by seeing a person being strangled and suffering.

In December, the court decided to adopt as evidence a mental diagnosis stating the defendant’s mental competence was undiminished at the time of the murders, and a mental-health expert who made the diagnosis testified that Maeue was mentally competent.

Maeue pleaded guilty to the three murders. When the judge asked whether he would commit such crimes again if released, he said: “I have worries.”

Maeue’s counsel appealed the ruling, and his defense counsel sought to avoid the death penalty. The court used the “lust murder” accusation in describing the case.

The judge said: “It’s brutal, heartless, devilish, and his sexual propensity is deep-rooted and difficult to ameliorate,”

Sentencing

On March 28, 2007, a district court in Osaka sentenced Maeue to die by hanging.

The court said Maeue persuaded a 14-year-old junior high school student to join him in a suicide pact using charcoal stoves to produce deadly carbon monoxide, and then suffocated the victim near a mountain in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, in May 2005. The court also said he killed a 25-year-old woman and a 21-year-old male university student in February and June 2005 in a similar way and dumped their corpses.

Appeals

Maeue made an appeal after being sentenced to die by hanging.

He retracted his accusation on July 5, 2007, under the influence of Mamoru Takuma.

Outcome

Hiroshi Maeue was executed by hanging in Osaka on July 28, 2009, along with 25-year-old condemned criminal Yukio Yamaji.

Other details

Maeue was suspected of having posted messages on several suicide websites.

It was reported that Maeue told police he felt “sexually excited” to see a person being suffocated and suffering in agony.

The victims’ origins were described as follows:

• Maeue was from Sakai.
• Nagamoto was from Toyonaka.
• Police suspected the victim in the May case was a 14-year-old boy from Kobe.
• Police suspected the other was a 21-year-old college student.

Prior incidents and earlier sentences

Maeue was arrested in 1995 for asphyxiating a male associate. He settled out of court and was released, but he was fired.

Maeue was arrested for asphyxiating two women in 2001 and was sentenced to one year in prison with a 3 years suspended sentence.

In April 2002, Maeue asphyxiated a junior high school boy. He was arrested and was sentenced to 1 year and 10 months in prison.

He asphyxiated his male friend after entering the Kanazawa Institute of Technology, and he dropped out in 1988.