MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Piranha (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Mon, 05 May 2025
In 2011, a police officer spotted a woman on a busy street in Japan, and he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He looked at a photo on his phone, and then back at the woman, it was definitely her. He’d been tasked with finding this woman and bringing her back home, it was a pretty basic task, but he’d managed to complete it way faster than he thought he would. The officer rushed down the street, greeted the woman, and she confirmed she was the person he was looking for. He led her back to his car, drove her home, and that was that. But what the officer could not have possibly have imagined, was that locating this woman and bringing her home was about to unravel 25 years of unimaginable horrors – and lead to one of the most bizarre cases Japanese investigators had ever seen.For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What is the chilling story behind the woman found in Japan?
In 2011, a police officer spotted a woman on a busy street in Japan, and he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He looked at a photo on his phone and then back at this woman and thought, yeah, that's definitely her. He'd been tasked with finding this woman and bringing her back home. It was a pretty basic task, but he'd managed to complete it way faster than he thought he would.
The officer rushed down the street, greeted the woman, and she confirmed that, yes, she was the person he was looking for. So he led her back to his car, drove her back home, and that was that.
However, what the officer could not have possibly imagined was that locating this woman and taking her home was about to unravel 25 years of unimaginable horrors and lead to one of the most bizarre cases Japanese investigators had ever seen.
But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please replace the frosting on the Follow Buttons Vanilla Donut with mayonnaise. Okay, let's get into today's story.
Lamont Jones is shattered when his cousin dies just weeks after entering prison. The official report says natural causes, but bruises and missing teeth tell a different story. Wondery presents Death County PA, a chilling true story of corruption and cover-ups. Follow Death County PA on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Miyoko Sumida raced down the sidewalk in Amagasaki, Japan, trying to will her body to go faster. Miyoko was 63 years old, and she couldn't remember the last time she had run, and her lungs were on fire and her legs felt heavy. Even though it was a cool day out, she could feel the heavy eyeliner and mascara she always wore starting to run down her face.
Every cell in her body was screaming at her to just stop, but she knew that whatever she did, she couldn't stop. She had already waited too long. Miyoko darted across the street and rounded a corner. Ahead of her, the city spread out. In the distance was Amagasaki Castle.
It was a white 17th-century building with these graceful layers of traditional Japanese curved roofs, and it stood in stark contrast to the rest of the city, which was all low, boxy apartment buildings and factories and warehouses. Miyoko turned a final corner, and there it was, the police station. She ran inside and she called out for help.
A police officer came out from behind a window, and in between breaths, Miyoko blurted out the reason she had come. One of her closest friends had gone missing. But the officer just stood there and stared at her calmly and told her to please slow down. And suddenly, Miyoko became aware of what she must look like. A little old frail lady with crazy hair, panting and gasping on the verge of tears.
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Chapter 2: How was the mysterious woman connected to a larger horror?
So back in the 1980s and 90s, and even into the early 2000s, the Yakuza had operated pretty openly in certain bars and restaurants. People could always tell the establishments where the Yakuza were running brothels because there would be a scantily clad hostess at the door trying to entice customers to come inside.
And then when those customers stepped through the door, the whole place would be lit with a strange bright pink light. And if they wanted to spend some money, they could go upstairs and pay for sex. But now, the Japanese police had begun a crackdown on Yakuza activities, passing a series of anti-gang laws and targeting different parts of their operations.
And so, when Sato's team talked to people in the seediest bars and restaurants in town, they didn't really come up with anything. It seemed like the Yakuza were just laying low, not murdering women and stuffing their bodies into barrels. Sato began to worry that this Yakuza lead was just gonna take his team to a dead end.
But then, just a couple of days after the discovery of the body, the autopsy results arrived on Sato's desk. Now, the report couldn't answer when this woman had died. It was impossible to tell if she had been dead for days or months. However, the report did give the identity of the victim.
Using dental records, authorities had identified her as Kazuko Oe, a 66-year-old woman who had lived in the city. Sato kept on reading the autopsy, and when he finished it, he found attached at the back was this additional report. And when he read this additional report, he was shocked.
The report said the dead woman found in the barrel was the mother of Kai Oe, a woman who'd recently been reported missing. But that was not the craziest thing, because the missing woman, Kai, had not been missing at all.
A few days after Kai's neighbor, an older woman named Miyoko Sumida, had filed a missing persons report, the police had tracked down Kai, just 20 minutes away in the major city of Osaka. And it would turn out Kai had been hiding out there using a fake name. Very suspicious.
And so Sato quickly contacted the officers who'd found Kai, and they told him that when they'd located her, they had no idea her mother was dead. And so there was no connection drawn about perhaps Kai being involved in the death.
And since it was not illegal for her to run away and hide out in a different city and pretend to be somebody else, Kai had simply been brought home and allowed to return to her normal life like nothing had happened. Now, Sato's mind began to race. He wondered if the case was really just this simple. Maybe it had nothing to do with the Yakuza.
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Chapter 3: Who is Miyoko Sumida and her role in the investigation?
Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios podcasts. There's this one, of course, the Mr. Ballin Podcast, and there's Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Full, Redacted, and Late Nights with Nexpo.
All you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts. To watch hundreds more stories just like this one, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya.
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