CA CA - Tsunao, 46, & Loullie Saitoh, 13, San Diego, 8 May 1996

nevinm

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Tsunao Saitoh was a Professor of Neurosciences, and Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, at the University of California, San Diego. He was an accomplished Alzheimer's researcher. He was shot in his car in the driveway of his house, at about 11 pm, in a wealthy area of La Jolla, San Diego. His teenaged daughter had also been shot, apparently while trying to escape, as her body was found nearby in the driveway. It appeared that the killer(s) had been lying in wait for the victims to arrive home.

http://www.sandiego.gov/police/about/coldcase00.shtml

http://www.time.com/time/international/1996/960520/crime.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/10/us/alzheimer-s-researcher-is-found-slain.html

There are a number of other news articles on Google News Archive, but they are pay-per-view...maybe I will try to read them some time. However I could not see any news coverage since 1998.
 
Tsunao Saitoh was a Professor of Neurosciences, and Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, at the University of California, San Diego. He was an accomplished Alzheimer's researcher. He was shot in his car in the driveway of his house, at about 11 pm, in a wealthy area of La Jolla, San Diego. His teenaged daughter had also been shot, apparently while trying to escape, as her body was found nearby in the driveway. It appeared that the killer(s) had been lying in wait for the victims to arrive home.
http://www.sandiego.gov/police/about/coldcase00.shtml

http://www.time.com/time/international/1996/960520/crime.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/10/us/alzheimer-s-researcher-is-found-slain.html

There are a number of other news articles on Google News Archive, but they are pay-per-view...maybe I will try to read them some time. However I could not see any news coverage since 1998.




coldcasesaito3th.jpg
coldcasesaitoth.jpg

http://www.sandiego.gov/police/about/coldcase00.shtml

?4LE
Can you please release any official LE documents for us to view?
Any police documents pertaining to this case would be greatly appreciated.
Especially any video tape of the crime scene, or any other video you can release.
Any visual aids at all please.





Date: May 8, 1996

Address: 7000 Fairway Road
Synopsis: Dr. Tsunao Saitoh was an accomplished and well-respected research neuroscientist at UCSD. On May 8, 1996 at about 11:00 p.m., Dr. Saitoh and his 13-year-old daughter, Loullie, returned home from the research lab on campus. As their car pulled up to the front of their home, an unknown suspect or suspects ambushed Dr. Saitoh and his daughter in the driveway, shooting and killing them both. Neighbors heard the gunshots and passers-by found the bodies a short time afterward. Dr. Saitoh was slumped over in the car and Loullie had run a short distance before being gunned down.
Numerous .380 caliber casings were found in the driveway and street where the gunshots were fired. Based on a ballistics analysis of these casings, the murder weapon was identified as a Grendel P-12 .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol, a gun manufactured in limited quantities.
The Grendel P-12 semi-automatic pistol (pictured) is the same make and model of gun as the one used to murder Dr. Saitoh and his daughter. The murder weapon itself was not located. Investigators are interested in following up on any leads related to this case.
An exhaustive investigation was conducted in this case, and the motive for the double murder remains a mystery. Dr. Saitoh had no known enemies, and neither he nor his daughter was involved in any high-risk activities.


QUOTE..."Dr. Saitoh's findings are critical in learning how this disease is caused and how to cure it," said Phyllis J. Lessin, an assistant chief at the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the University of California at San Diego, where Professor Saitoh conducted his studies. "He was brilliant. This loss will have great significance." ...END OF QUOTE.

If he would have lived, perhaps Alzheimer's Disease would have became something from the past.
What a terrible lost for humanity.
This case needs solved for the family/love ones back home in Japan.







 
I remember this case. I thought the suspected individual was possibly a female researcher that had an affair with the father? Not sure where I heard or read that, but I did work for the state of CA for a short period of time in 1986.
 
Still fearful wife, mom asks `why?'
The San Diego Union - Tribune - San Diego, Calif.
Date: May 27, 1996


This pay-per-view article was about an interview with Shizue Saitoh, Prof. Saitoh's wife and Loullie's mother. Shizue Saitoh was on vacation in Nice, France at the time of the homicides, and returned to San Diego as soon as she learned the news.

Shizue Saitoh said that they were able to buy the house ($800 000 at the time) because her family is wealthy, and she previously made some successful investments in the stock market. She also owned three other houses in San Diego as rental properties.

"Her husband bought a one-bedroom condominium on Via Sonoma near the university. Saitoh said he used it for solitude, yoga and meditation, and that she never went there."

She denied reports that she and her husband were estranged.

"But she acknowledged that her extensive travels and her reluctance to be part of his work life may have left the impression that the couple had marital woes. She said she was informed that her husband told others he was single. If that is true, she said, he was probably joking. When asked whether she believed rumors that her husband was involved with another woman, she said: 'I don't know. If it is true, I don't know.'"

"But Saitoh said she and Loullie had trouble adjusting to San Diego and did not feel welcome, especially by other Japanese nationals."
 
Widow offers $30,000 reward in killing of scientist, daughter
The San Diego Union - Tribune
Date: Jan 23, 1997

According to this pay-per-view article, police initially thought the crime was the work of a professional killer.

"The theory was based on evidence that Loullie -- who was moving - - was hit from 30 feet away and that all of the seven shots fired by the killer hit their targets. Saitoh was hit four times, his daughter thrice."

However, by the time of this article, according to Lt. Glenn Breitenstein, police were leaning toward the theory that the killer had no connection to the victims, because a thorough investigation of Prof. Saitoh's personal and professional life yielded no possible motives.

"'We have nothing to indicate it was anything other than a random act of violence," he said. "It could have been a street robbery, an attempted carjacking, we just don't know. I don't believe it was a professional hit.'"

However, Prof. Saitoh's wallet, and the house, appeared untouched.
 
What a sad case, It would appear he was the target and the daughter was just in the way. I wonder if the mother has any other children. I would like to know how her relationship with her daughter was did she spend much time with her, or did the father pretty much take care of her.
Well it really sounds like a professional hit to me and $30,000 is a drop in the bucket if she really wanted the killer found it sounds like she could afford to offer much more.
 
Just a theory, but interesting.
I wonder if LE wondered the same?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/596777/posts

The following from the link above.

As soon as I heard on TV "brain protein" and "there were no witnesses," I said to myself: "This is a professional hit. This is not a random killing by muggers." (My judgement was later borne out by a Reuters report [5/11/96, San Diego] which called the double murder "very professionally done.") I was also becoming familiar with violence against scientists and others victims who were all involved in one way or another with abnormal brain proteins. Some of them implicated a chemical in Mad Cow Disease and its species-transmissible form, including the human version, CJD.

Once again I called Mark Purdey to find out of he knew anything of the work of Saitoh, as he did of Gajusek. While Saitoh's name sounded familiar to Purdey, he couldn't pinpoint it, but when I told him that Saitoh had been working in the area of abnormal brain proteins in AD, Purdey said that the protein was called an abnormal "tau" in Alzheimer. He said OP (*Organophosphate chemical, a pesticide) would cause the tau deformity in the same way it causes the deformed prion protein in the brains of cattle

I had heard on the news that there was a conference on AD in San Diego (where the medical college is located and near LaJolla). The conference had been mentioned on the news in conjunction with Saitoh's assassination. Saitoh was a "globally recognized" authority on AD and he was at UCSD. His death occurred in the evening prior to the opening of the conference. I thought perhaps he was going to present some radical new theory of OP-induced Alzheimers. Yet a spokesperson told me: "He was not on the program and he had not been expected to attend."



http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/1994/102-1/munro-full.html

At the above link, it explains *Organophosphate
 
Hmmmm, I do remember this case a bit, too. I really have no insight to share, but I hope that it gets solved someday.
 
Just a theory, but interesting.
I wonder if LE wondered the same?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/596777/posts

The following from the link above.

As soon as I heard on TV "brain protein" and "there were no witnesses," I said to myself: "This is a professional hit. This is not a random killing by muggers." (My judgement was later borne out by a Reuters report [5/11/96, San Diego] which called the double murder "very professionally done.") I was also becoming familiar with violence against scientists and others victims who were all involved in one way or another with abnormal brain proteins. Some of them implicated a chemical in Mad Cow Disease and its species-transmissible form, including the human version, CJD.

Once again I called Mark Purdey to find out of he knew anything of the work of Saitoh, as he did of Gajusek. While Saitoh's name sounded familiar to Purdey, he couldn't pinpoint it, but when I told him that Saitoh had been working in the area of abnormal brain proteins in AD, Purdey said that the protein was called an abnormal "tau" in Alzheimer. He said OP (*Organophosphate chemical, a pesticide) would cause the tau deformity in the same way it causes the deformed prion protein in the brains of cattle

I had heard on the news that there was a conference on AD in San Diego (where the medical college is located and near LaJolla). The conference had been mentioned on the news in conjunction with Saitoh's assassination. Saitoh was a "globally recognized" authority on AD and he was at UCSD. His death occurred in the evening prior to the opening of the conference. I thought perhaps he was going to present some radical new theory of OP-induced Alzheimers. Yet a spokesperson told me: "He was not on the program and he had not been expected to attend."



http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/1994/102-1/munro-full.html

At the above link, it explains *Organophosphate

Although when I first read your theory I thought it was silly, it's probably no sillier than some of mine in other cases. And, it certainly isn't any more silly than the police actually asking someone if they did it and accepting "no" for an answer.

I don't understand why you think researchers are being targeted. The ehp link is defunct.

I do agree that they were not killed randomly.
 
Although when I first read your theory I thought it was silly, it's probably no sillier than some of mine in other cases. And, it certainly isn't any more silly than the police actually asking someone if they did it and accepting "no" for an answer.

I don't understand why you think researchers are being targeted. The ehp link is defunct.

I do agree that they were not killed randomly.

It was not my theory. Being almost 4 years old I barely remember this case. And unfortunately a lot of links on cases posted from the past do not exist anymore. I copied all from the links above and just posted here since there was not much information at the time. Since the case is still open the persons theory above has probably been discounted and or investigated and let go.

In cold cases sometimes we have to think wayyyyyyy outside the box.

This could have been nothing more than a attempted robbery/car jacking that went bad. The girl tried to run away, and was shot first and than the father made a quick response to his daughter being shot and got shot himself and the killer ran away without taking anything.
 
Sad case, and I remember reading this thread when it was first posted.
 
Not forgotten. Prayers for the family, peace and resolution.
 
Does anyone know anything about the funding or what would have been possible funding for Tsuano's work? Had he applied for grants that after his death went elsewhere?
 
Does anyone think it odd that a person would repeatedly, over the years, make reference to Tsuano's daughter's name? This happened whenever the song "Louie Louie" came up. The person would say, "Are you sure it isn't "Loullie Loullie"?
 
Does anyone think it odd that a person would repeatedly, over the years, make reference to Tsuano's daughter's name? This happened whenever the song "Louie Louie" came up. The person would say, "Are you sure it isn't "Loullie Loullie"?

Who was saying this ? tia
 
For some reason, I see this case is mentioned on an EAR/ONS site. It actually reminds me a lot more of the 1988 murders of Mickey and Trudy Thompson in Bradbury, California although no connection is obvious. The Thompson killings were murders for hire and the instigator went to prison however the two actual shooters were never captured or identified.
 
This one haunts me. No plausible hypothesis. Wife hired pros to kill husband and daughter? Pros screwed up in killing daughter? Why not just divorce? No prenup? Car jacking in a quiet upscale residential neighborhood that’s a challenging uphill walk from anywhere? Robbery or burglary gone bad? Then why so many bullets?

Nothing makes sense.

I hope they’re still working on it.
 

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