SATURDAY & MONDAY UPDATES BELOW

This story hit the presses after we put the latest edition of TPR News to bed.

At about 9:20 p.m. on Wednesday night, Shinagawa-based taxi driver Masaaki Takahashi was found just where he was supposed to be: in Yokosuka, in his cab, seatbelt buckled. Unfortunately, there was a knife in his back.

The fare on the meter was 17,000 yen, indicating that Takahashi, who drove for Anzen Taxi Service, had picked up a passenger in Tokyo and driven him all the way down to Yokosuka.

If, as it seems, someone killed Takahashi because he didn’t want to pay the fare (not cheap by any means), the crime would be strange and sad enough. This crime, though, is making headlines across the nation, including front page stories in major dailies this morning (朝日新聞、読売新聞), and is bound to bring out the most righteous indignation in the blogosphere. Why?

A missing American Seaman’s credit card was found in the passenger compartment of the cab.

The US Navy, which has promised to cooperate fully with the Kanagawa Police investigation, said the Seaman was stationed on a Yokosuka-based ship that had sailed without him and that he had been missing for weeks. Obviously, Japanese police have joined the Navy in looking for him.

Whether the Seaman was involved in the murder or not, the next couple of weeks are going to be full of calls for heads to roll.

Whether the Seaman was involved in the murder or not, he’s got to be kicking himself for dropping his credit card in that taxi.

As if the US military weren’t getting enough bad press, two teenaged sons of American servicemen in Okinawa were arrested for stealing a cash box containing 5,400 yen from a taxi driver on Sunday night.

Saturday UPDATE: The missing Seaman was caught early this morning. Cmdr. David Waterman, spokesman for Commander U.S. Naval Forces Japan, referred to the 22-year-old man as a “deserter,” but would not confirm whether or not he was a suspect in the murder. It has been confirmed, though, that the sailor was Takahashi’s passenger on the trip down to Yokosuka from Shinagawa.
There is a possibility that at about 8 p.m. (the cab driver) picked up the American serviceman in the Shinagawa area and that he was attacked immediately after delivering (the serviceman) to Yokosuka City. The police are increasingly holding the view that (the cab driver) had some kind of trouble with the U.S. serviceman. (Thanks to MTC.)

News updates also revealed that 60,000 yen was found in Takahashi’s cash box and “tens of thousands of yen” in his pockets, which would seem to mean that robbery was not a motive in the killing.

MONDAY: MTC of Shisaku raises a few important cautionary flags in what is already becoming another predetermined conviction. (How many people are still referring to “the soldier in Okinawa who abducted and raped a girl”? Nevermind that he wasn’t a soldier and that he was never even charged, much less convicted.)

To wit:

I have had a difficulty believing the sailor to be the murderer. Part of my doubt can be attributed to my recurring pattern of sympathy for defendants in high-profile criminal investigations. A more significant portion, however, is is attributable to my unease when the number of inexplicable events exceeds one. The absurd itinerary (from Shinagawa to the gates of the Yokosuka Naval Base by taxi, then back to Shinagawa by some unknown conveyance) the too convenient presence of an incriminating credit card, the 62,000 in cash still in the cabby’s purse–does not fit the story of a desperate deserter on the lam. If he were on the run, why take a taxi back to the gates of the Navy base? If he were desperate, why did he not take the money?

Now a bit of speculation.

First of all, let me say that I agree with MTC and that the circumstances under which this AWOL Seaman could have murdered Mr. Takahashi and getting harder to explain. Second, I find the fact that so much cash was left in the cab belies the assumed, implied motive, which, it seems, is the following:

Seaman goes missing, finds himself in Shinagawa, decides to head back to Yokosuka - maybe it’s the only place he knows people, maybe he wants to turn himself in and had been AWOL specifically to miss his ship’s departure for some reason, maybe he wants to turn himself in for some other reason - he hops in a cab and heads to Yokosuka. On the way, he realizes it’s more expensive than he bargained for. He doesn’t have the cash. He gets out his credit card, which sparks some sort of dispute between Takahashi and the now-panicked Seaman, who either can’t or won’t pay. Maybe the card is rejected. In the ensuing altercation, the Seaman kills the driver.

This is what we’re supposed to imagine, right?

Doesn’t make sense. Someone who’d fight and kill over a disputed bill would take the cash.

But maybe he panicked. This was manslaughter, not murder. He ran.

This leads us to a more plausible scenario (but still not satisfying. Agatha Christie would not be proud.)

The Seaman goes AWOL and possibly finds work in central Tokyo, where he stays with friends or acquaintances. His ship having sailed and realizing he’s going to be in trouble no matter what, he decides to head back to Yokosuka. The situation is the same as above - it’s clearly manslaughter, he didn’t mean to kill Takahashi. He flees back to Shinagawa to hide out with acquaintances. Perhaps he took another cab back into Tokyo after having stolen some, but not all of the money from the cash box in the cab or in Takahashi’s pockets.

He is later found by MPs because he contacts friends of his in the Navy, word eventually makes it around to the MPs, who pick him up before the local police. Perhaps he realizes he’s in even bigger trouble now, and that what happened is high profile, and wants to be sure he is picked up by the Navy as opposed to the local police.

Of course, there is the equally strong possibility that the AWOL Seaman didn’t fight with or kill Takahashi at all. That he is now in what I’ll call a “Mild Hitchcock” scenario.

If he is, is it a Wrong Man situation - a mistake - or a Man Who Knew Too Much situation - a frame?

The Wrong Man situation seems to me to be the most likely of all, more likely than any scenario in which the AWOL Seaman killed Takahashi or was framed. The Seaman took a cab and dropped his credit card, but never went down to Yokosuka - that was a coincidence. Because of that unusual coincidence, both the local police and the Navy saw a connection that wasn’t there.

Or maybe the Seaman took a cab down to Yokosuka and was going to pay when someone wholly unrelated, for wholly unrelated reasons, killed Takahashi and the Seaman panicked and fled.

Or maybe there’s a frame-up. Whoever really did kill Takahashi found the accidentally dropped credit card and headed down to Yokosuka to frame the Seaman. Or maybe it’s high-level, hardcore Hitchcock. The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Or maybe he did it, although, for now, we have to presume that he didn’t.