Police in rural Japan are searching for a 63-year-old man suspected of having killed five people, burned down two houses and left behind a haiku poem as a clue, fixed to a window at the home of their chief suspect.
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There was no trace of the poem’s author, who has not been named. Two cars were still in his garage, however, and police began their manhunt in the woods around the village last night.
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Criminologist Jinsuke Kageyama told the Japan Times: “All of the victims must have been asleep when they were attacked… Even elderly people resist. It would have been difficult to strike them repeatedly only on the head.”
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According to the hamlet’s surviving residents, the man was known to be unfriendly and something of a troublemaker.
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Another resident of the village reportedly told police the haiku had been in the man’s window for some time. There had been a small fire at one victim’s home around five years ago, and another local house burned to the ground in 2011.
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