Thank you for such a considered and thorough thread
@FacelessPodcast.
Just in relation to neighbours stating they didn't hear screaming:
I wonder about whether it is realistic to assume that victims will always scream when they are fighting for their lives. It's been noted by several knowledgable posters on the Moscow, Idaho student murders thread, that when someone is trapped and fighting for their life, the energy needed for the physical struggle may preclude screaming or at least preclude the sort of screaming which Hollywood has taught us to expect. I can fully imagine that if Mikio was ambushed, in his shock and in the immediate need to try and preserve his life, all energy would go to this end: in physically struggling to try and ward off his attacker. I envisage grunts rather than screaming.Moo
And from what I read, it's thought Yasuko and Nina were initially ambushed in the loft whilst they were in bed? Again I can envisage that shock and immediate need to preserve life may have precluded high pitched screaming. Not sure ofcourse exactly how that first horrific attack on the mother and child proceeded, but killer may have initially struck both simultaneoulsy and it's not hard for me to imagine Yasuko's energy being immediately directed towards protecting herself and her child: no time to scream, no time to call out because the body's priority is to fight for life.Moo
When the killer left the loft I can hardly imagine Yasuko's and Nina's terror, but again it makes sense to me that Yasuko would have made the decision to get out of the loft but quietly; and perhaps told Nina to try and be quiet. I feel sure that in her terror Nina was a good girl and would have tried to do what mummy said
. And perhaps Nina, who would have been in severe shock, would have been somewhat mute at that point.Moo.
I do not want to think about what happenned once they left the loft; the sheer terror that Yasuko and little Nina must have felt. But having to again try and ward off someone clearly intent on killing (not open to begging/negotiation), Yasuko's body may simply not have prioritised screaming. Moo.
These are just my thoughts and speculation on why next door may not have heard any screaming: perhaps there actually wasn't any or at least not much. Just to add, I do fully get why TKMD are miffed with neighbours' claim they did not hear
any unusual sounds (apart from the thud which is likely to have been the loft ladder being put up if I've understood correctly?). In the struggling there surely would have been thumps and grunts Imo and perhaps some crying from Nina at some point, though this last is really hard for me to guess with any feeling of certainty. All Moo