Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.

And I'm Brett.

And the story I have for you today is honestly one of those cases that on paper it almost

doesn't seem real because it feeds right into our nightmares about family and safety and

security and what happens when those things are violated in the worst way imaginable.

This is the story of the Sedegaia family murders.

On December 31, 2000, in Sedegaia Ward, in Western Tokyo, a woman named Haruko decides to

call her family.

Haruko is an older lady and she lives right next door to her daughter, Yasuko Miyazawa.

And Yasuko's family includes her husband Mikio, their daughter Nina, whose eight and their

son Rey, whose six.

So as you might imagine, for a family that all lives in close proximity like this, they're

all pretty tight-knit.

So Haruko calls over to their house, but there's no answer.

At first, she doesn't think that this is weird.

I mean, it's possible that nobody's near the phone, whatever.

But it's also New Year's Eve and a Sunday, so they should be at home and already awake.

Like, at the very least, the kids are going to want breakfast soon.

So maybe that's what's keeping them from answering.

But as she keeps calling and calling without an answer, eventually she starts to wonder

what the heck is going on.

Between 10 and 10.30 that morning, she decides, you know what, I'm just going to go over

...