Journey back in time to revisit one of Japan's most haunting and mysterious cases: the Saga Serial Murders. For 14 long years, from 1975 to 1989, a shadow loomed over Saga Prefecture. A brutal and methodical killer, given chilling nicknames like the "Wednesday Strangler" or "Wicked Wednesday," targeted and murdered seven women.

The case became infamous for its gruesome details and bizarre crime scenes. Victims often disappeared on a Wednesday, their bodies later discovered in shocking locations—from the depths of a school's septic tank to the bottom of a desolate mountain cliff. The police investigation was a frustrating maze of strange clues, including cryptic threatening letters and a mysterious postcard sent after one of the murders. The trail seemed to lead to a prime suspect who even confessed, but he later recanted his statement and was acquitted due to a lack of concrete evidence.

To this day, the "Kitagata Case" remains a painful wound in Japan's criminal history. Who was the real "Wednesday Strangler"? Is he still living freely, carrying the secret of his horrific crimes? Dive deep into every corner of this chilling cold case, where justice has never been served.

On the final night of the 20th century, a tragedy unfolded in a quiet Tokyo suburb that would haunt Japan for decades. The entire Miyazawa family—a father, mother, and two young children—were brutally murdered in their own home.

But this was no ordinary killer. After the heinous act, he didn't flee. He stayed for hours. He ate ice cream from their fridge, used their computer, took a nap, and left behind a mountain of evidence: his DNA, his fingerprints, his blood, and his entire outfit. The clues point to a man of mixed European and East Asian descent, wearing shoes never sold in Japan, with sand from the American southwest in his bag.

Despite over 280,000 investigators and a 20 million yen reward, the identity of this bizarre phantom remains one of the world's greatest unsolved mysteries.

Join Julian on The East Files as we unpack the chilling details of the Setagaya Family Massacre and ask: how can a killer leave everything behind, yet simply vanish?

In 1960s Hanoi, Doctor Tran Huu Chinh was a national icon. A brilliant, Soviet-trained physician and the esteemed director of the National Children's Hospital, he was a man sworn to save lives. His marriage to a beautiful nurse was seen as the perfect union.
But when his wife, a new mother, dies suddenly from a baffling illness, the perfect facade begins to crack. Whispers at her funeral lead a determined investigator down a dark path of suspicion. To uncover the truth, he must challenge a powerful man and orchestrate a secret exhumation under the cover of night.
This is the chilling true story of a meticulously planned murder, a community betrayed, and a race against time to find a rare poison before a killer can erase his tracks forever. Was Doctor Chinh a grieving husband, or was he a cold-blooded murderer who designed the perfect crime?

For 14 years, the disappearance of a young Vietnamese woman named Nguyen Thi Hien was a painful mystery blamed on theft and betrayal. But when construction workers unearth a skeleton wrapped in a distinctive flowered blanket, a dark secret, buried for over a decade, finally comes to light.
This week on The East Files, Julian takes you to Vietnam to unravel a chilling cold case where justice took a supernatural turn. Discover how a killer, Ngo Xuan Thuan, was tormented by his own conscience, sending his mother to a pagoda to pray for the very woman he murdered. Follow the trail of clues—from a worker's strange premonition to a monk's long-held memory—that led investigators to the truth.
This is a story about the psychological price of murder and a haunting that wouldn't end, long after the statute of limitations had expired. Is a guilty conscience the ultimate prison?