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4 Arrested for 2007 Belgian 'Manga Murder' Case

The Belgian newspaper Le Soir reported on Monday that four suspects were arrested in the three-year-old case of body parts found near notes linked to the Death Note manga. The Belgian Federal Police arrested four men on Friday evening — three for murder, and one for "failing to provide assistance to a person in danger" after he allegedly admitted to being at the scene of the crime. According to the Brussels public prosecutor, two of the murder suspects confessed.

At around 6:00 p.m. on September 28, 2007, two hikers found a human torso and two thighs in Duden Park in the city of Saint-Gilles. Police later determined the shaven parts came from a Caucasian male individual who was killed several days earlier and deposited in the park around noon on the day the parts were found.

No identification or personal effects were found on the body parts, but two pieces of paper were found nearby with the same message in Roman capital letters: "WATASHI WA KIRA DESS." (Le Soir posted a police file photograph of the notes.) This is an apparent misspelling of the Japanese phrase "Watashi wa Kira desu," or "I am Kira (Killer)," an alias in Tsugumi Ooba and Takeshi Obata's Death Note suspense manga series.

Le Soir added that the police also discovered a trail left by the suspects, in the form of a 50-meter (about 160-foot) line of rice that led to a symbol ("probably Japanese") drawn in the vegetation.

While the identities of the suspects and victim have not been made public, the newspaper reported that a spokesperson for the prosecution said that they lived together. The spokesperson said that an argument had broken out between the suspects and the victim, and the victim refused to leave when asked. The argument allegedly turned physical with multiple blows that resulted in the victim's death. According to the newspaper, the spokesperson said that the suspects decided to leave the two notes near the body since they were fans of manga.

The Belgian press nicknamed the case "Mangamoord" ("Manga Murder" in Dutch).

Thanks to Nele Noppe for the news tip.

Source: De Morgen Binnenland

File Photos © Belgian Federal Police