Alone For Months, 2 Dead: The Child Abandonment Case That Left The World Heartbroken
Content Warning
In a world where the birth of a child is considered a “blessing” by many, more often than not, the opposite side is not considered. There have been many cases where a parent harmed a child due to negligence, with a motive sometimes being not wanting to be a parent.
One such case of negligence inspired the 2004 film Nobody Knows, and made international headlines due to the shocking circumstances.
A mother in Japan gave birth to her first child in 1973 and had four addition children by different fathers in the years after. In the film, only four children are depicted, in part due to the real life circumstances the children faced.
The mother, who did not register the children born after her first, seemed to move place to place before settling into a new apartment in October 1987. The follow month, she told the oldest child that she would be going to Osaka to make money, which she would send back to the children.
She left 50,000 yen (around $350 USD at the time) and left the children, leaving the oldest in charge.
In reality, she actually left after finding a new boyfriend and reportedly did not send any funds after March 1988.
In April 1998, two friends of the oldest child attacked the two-year-old youngest child, resulting in her death. The film depicts her death differently, showing that she died from an accidental fall while the oldest was out with friends.
Ultimately, the children were discovered by police after a tip from the landlord in July of the same year. All were severely malnourished, with the oldest child revealing that he helped to bury his younger sister after discovering she was killed.
After speaking with one of the children, police discovered the body of the third born child in a closet, as he had died shortly after birth in 1984. The film ends before this, with the children shown returning home after burying their sister.
The children’s mother turned herself in a few days later, and admitted to leaving the children alone for nine months. Despite the child abandonment and the deaths of two children, the mother was sentenced to only a three-year sentence, suspended for four years.
The two friends responsible for the youngest child’s death were sent to a reform school, while the oldest child, charged with abandoning a body, was remanded to a care facility in light of the circumstances.
In what would shock most learning of this case, after her three year sentence, the mother regained custody of her two remaining children. There have since been no updates, beyond a report stating that the eldest son did not see his mother again after.
