Futoshi Matsunaga

Futoshi Matsunaga was born in Kokurakita Ward of the city of Kitakyūshū in Fukuoka Prefecture, and grew up in Yanagawa.Matsunaga received good grades in school and had a charming personality, but tended to exhibit disciplinary problems.She died mysteriously in March 1994, and the police were unable to prove that Matsunaga had killed the woman or her child.Junko's family gave 63 million yen (about US$777,116) to Matsunaga, after which he held them captive and psychologically controlled them in ways similar to the methods of cult-leader Shoko Asahara.When Shizumi's mental state began to deteriorate, Matsunaga commanded Rieko and her husband, Kazuya, to strangle her on January 20, 1998.Matsunaga and Junko dismembered and boiled their victims' remains in pots, then finally disposed of them in washrooms or into the sea.Matsunaga and Junko then convinced the woman to give them 20 million yen (about US$246,580), telling her that they would need the money to bring up her children.The media initially reported only that Matsunaga and Junko had held their victims captive, similar to the case of Fusako Sano, until details of the couple's murders emerged.Junko calmly confessed to her part in the murders, but Matsunaga insisted that the women had fabricated their stories about him.Police never recovered any human remains and found no physical evidence, so they relied primarily upon the testimonies of Kumio's and Junko's daughters during the investigation.[4] The court tried six cases, but considered that they had not killed Takashige directly, but had only injured him by electric shocks which later resulted in his death.