040 | The Last Walk of Masumi Watanabe
Description
April 12, 2007. On a quiet road in Pupukea, twenty-one-year-old Masumi Watanabe — shy, gentle, and far from her home on Sado Island, Japan — was last seen alive. Neighbors heard her cry out, a single word: “No.”
By nightfall, she was missing.
What followed was an island-wide search, the discovery of her glasses and blood in a pest control truck, a midnight witness at Kahana Bay, and a trial that would expose impossible lies. A jury found Kirk Matthew Lankford guilty of second-degree murder, and the Hawaii Paroling Authority set a record 150-year minimum.
Yet Masumi has never been found. Her parents still return to Hawaii, pleading for one thing: to bring their daughter home.
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Sources for this episode include:Hawaii News NowThe Honolulu Star-BulletinThe Honolulu AdvertiserThe Charley ProjectfindMasumi.orgHawaii court records
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Special mahalo to Yoza for her song Obsession — a piece that carries the ache and weight of Masumi’s story.
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#MasumiWatanabe #HawaiiCrime #TrueCrime #NorthShore #Oahu #Unsolved #MissingPersons #BeneathThePalms
United States
