Further Reading for Harold Shipman & The Setagay Family Murders

Harold Shipman: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Serial Killer

Prescription for Murder: The True Story of Dr. Harold Frederick Shipman

Episode: 15

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Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004) was an English general practitioner and one of the most prolific serial killers in history. On 31 January 2000, a jury found Shipman guilty of 15 murders of patients under his care. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he never be released.

The Shipman Inquiry, a two-year-long investigation of all deaths certified by Shipman, which was chaired by Dame Janet Smith, examined Shipman’s crimes. The inquiry identified 218 victims and estimated his total victim count at 250, about 80% of whom were elderly women. His youngest confirmed victim was a 41-year-old man, although “significant suspicion” arose that he had killed patients as young as four.

Much of Britain’s legal structure concerning health care and medicine was reviewed and modified as a result of Shipman’s crimes. He is the only British doctor to have been found guilty of murdering his patients, although other doctors have been acquitted of similar crimes or convicted on lesser charges.

Shipman died on 13 January 2004, one day prior to his 58th birthday, by hanging himself in his cell at Wakefield Prison.

The Setagaya family murder (世田谷一家殺害事件 Setagayaikkasatsugaijiken) refers to the unsolved murders of the Miyazawa family in Setagaya, Japan on December 30, 2000. Despite a massive investigation that uncovered many specific clues about the killer’s identity, the perpetrator has never been identified.

Every year, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department makes an annual pilgrimage to the house for memorial ceremonies. The Seijo Police Station is designated to investigate the case.

44-year-old Mikio Miyazawa, his 41-year-old wife Yasuko, and their children, 8-year-old Niina and 6-year-old Rei, were discovered murdered in their house on December 31, 2000, by Yasuko’s mother Asahi Geino. Rei had been strangled while the rest of the family had been stabbed.

Analysis of the crime scene concluded that the family had been murdered on December 30, after which the killer stayed in the house for several hours. The killer used the family computer and ate ice cream before leaving. The killer also left numerous articles of his clothing at the scene, as well as the two knives which were used in the killings.

A taxi driver in the area reported picking up three middle-aged men around the time of the murder. The men left behind blood marks on the back seat after leaving.