Episode Details

In October 2009, 19-year-old University of Shimane student Miyako Hiraoka vanished after leaving her part-time job in Hamada, Japan. Eleven days later, her remains were discovered around Mount Garyu in neighboring Hiroshima Prefecture, launching a massive murder investigation that remained unsolved for seven years. In 2016, police finally identified 33-year-old Tomiharu Yano, a man with previous convictions involving attacks on women, as the suspected killer.

The breakthrough came after investigators connected Yano's vehicle movements to the case and recovered deleted data from a digital camera and USB drive containing 57 photographs, including images of Miyako taken after her disappearance. But Yano could never face trial: he and his mother had died in a car crash on November 8, 2009, just two days after Miyako's remains were first discovered.