“Unsolved Mysteries” (2)
(“Unsolved Mysteries” Monthly Magazine, February 2017 Issue)
The Pursuit of Truth: The Case of the “Beast of Kakuriyo Island”
(Cont.)
However, there are many aspects of the case that cannot be explained by the prefectural police's conclusion that “dogs kept on the island damaged the body”.
Allow me to list the reasons for my conclusion.
The first is the three dogs (medium-sized) said to have been kept on the island.
After the incident, the bodies of two dogs were found on the island, stabbed in the chest by a cone-shaped object, and the remaining dog was found to have escaped to the Divine Land. This dog was killed by the police.
However, according to former police inspector B, who was in charge of the investigation, a veterinarian who examined the contents of the dogs' stomachs said he did not believe any of the three dogs had attacked a human.
In 1974, there were no carnivorous animals on the island other than the domesticated dogs and a few semi-domesticated cats. Given this, the veterinarian's conclusion is odd.
...Was it really a domesticated dog that attacked Professor Sasakura's body?
The second issue is the location where Sasakura's body was found.
According to Mr. B, Sasakura's body was found over ten meters away from the marks that were believed to have been made by Ms. Mikumo when she fell from the cliff.
This is too great a distance to allow the possibility that the two killed each other at the same time. The top brass of the police force at the time officially resolved the case by saying that Sasakura had moved there on foot before dying.
...However, is it possible that a man with a stab wound in his heart could walk ten meters?
Third, there were signs of a struggle left at the scene.
According to Mr. B, there were traces of a struggle at the top of the cliff that couldn't have been caused by a battle between humans, as even the surrounding trees were damaged. In addition to the marks likely left when Ms. Mikumo fell, there were fresh marks on the edge of the cliff where soil had been gouged out.
...Was it really Professor Sasakura that Ms. Mikumo had struggled with that day?
The fourth issue is the hunting rifle.
Ms. Mikumo had taken a hunting rifle from her home, and the rifle was found fallen on top of the cliff at the cemetery, all of its shots having been fired. According to Mr. A, the former islander, Ms. Mikumo was skilled enough with the gun to shoot down a seagull from 100 meters away. Despite that, no gunshot wounds were found on Sasakura's body.
...What was Ms. Mikumo, an expert shot, firing at?
The fifth contradiction is the most puzzling.
Two boats owned by islanders were docked on the island at the time, and their engines were found destroyed (only the engines; the spare fuel and other items inside the boats were unharmed). The police examined the fingerprints and found those of Mikumo Eiko on the tool they believe was used to destroy the engines. Every radio on the island and in the boats was destroyed as well.
...Why did Ms. Mikumo destroy the radios and boat engines, which were the island's lifelines?
Of course, the author does not disagree with the Kagoshima Prefectural Police's conclusion that “Sasakura dug up the grave and consequentially committed the crime of killing the islanders”. However, if you will forgive me for exercising my overactive imagination, we cannot deny the possibility that there was some unknown creature on Kakuriyo Island at the time.
For example, is the following sequence of events not conceivable?
For some reason, Professor Sasakura brought a large dog to the island. However, the dog developed a severe case of rabies.
The dog broke free of its bonds and ran away, and attacked Sasakura when he killed the eleven islanders and two of the island's dogs. The attack took Professor Sasakura by surprise, and the weapon he had in his hand was driven into his heart.
Later, Sasakura's body was cruelly eaten by the mad dog. Ms. Mikumo, realizing what was happening, chased the dog down with her hunting rifle, but she ran out of bullets.
Ms. Mikumo, having no other option, attacked the mad dog with Sasakura's weapon, and succeeded in pushing it into the sea... But during the struggle, Ms. Mikumo also fell into the sea and lost her life. The unknown mark must have been made by a mad dog when it fell into the sea.
This is just one possibility.
I understand that, as a hypothesis, it is incomplete. Among other things, it does not explain why Ms. Mikumo destroyed the radios and boat engines.
Were the police right in their assessment? Or was there an unknown beast on Kakuriyo Island? Now that over forty years have passed since the incident occurred, there may be no remaining way to discover the truth.
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